Consorting With the Enemy
by RedRoseMafia73
Summary: Next-door-neighbors Bella Swan and Edward Cullen have never gotten along. He is the bane of her existence and he revels in it. Now, both juniors in high school, a series of situations push them together and they find it hard to resist the underlying chemistry they have unknowingly been suppressing all along. After all, there's only a thin line between hate and love...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Alice, you can't seriously be asking me to spend an entire night with him and his idiot friends." I paced around my room, phone to my ear.

"C'mon, Bella! We always have a sleepover at my house the night before the first day of school! It's tradition! So what if Edward invited a few of his friends over? You can't break tradition!" Alice tried to convince me.

Alice Cullen and I met when her family moved into the house next to mine when we were in kindergarten. We had been best friends ever since. Edward was her asshole of a twin brother. He was the epitome of a high school popular guy stereotype: arrogant, attractive, and a total player. And don't think player is an exaggeration. He is with a different girl every day and you never see him with the same girl twice. Honestly, he changed girls the way most girls changed clothes.

"C'mon are you really gonna let Edward be the reason we skip the annual Labor Day slash end of summer sleepover?" She said it innocently enough, but I knew better. She knew me well enough to know which buttons to press to get me to do what she wanted.

Regardless of the fact, she was right. There was no way in hell I was gonna miss out on something just because of Edward.

"Fine, I'll be over in five," I sighed, already regretting my decision.

"Yay!" she squealed before hanging up.

"I'm sleeping over next door, Dad." I said as I came down the stairs. He was sitting in the living room in his favorite recliner watching a football game, his business papers scattered on the coffee table in front of him, forgotten. I rolled my eyes. Those same papers had been sitting there since noon. He was chief of police at the local station, a huge role in our town, but his love for sports sometimes prevented him from finishing his case files at a decent hour.

"Sure. Have fun at school tomorrow." He said without lifting his gaze from the television screen. Ugh. Don't remind me, I thought.

A few minutes later, a backpack full of clothes and school stuff over my shoulder, I was walking into the house next door like I owned the place.

"Hi, Esme," I said, as I passed through the kitchen. Alice and Edward's mom was in the kitchen baking her legendary chocolate-chip cookies.

"Oh, hi, Bella! Take a cookie! Everyone's downstairs," she gestured with one of her flour-covered hands to a plate of warm cookies.

Grabbing one, I stuffed it in my mouth and closed my eyes as the deliciousness.

"Thanks, Esme," I mumbled around the cookie as I made my way down the stairs.

"Truth." I heard Alice say.

"Okay, Alice, who was the last guy you kissed?" I heard someone ask as I entered the basement.

Alice, Edward, and a few of Edward's friends from school were lounging around in a poorly formed circle on the floor.

"Hey, look, Bella's here," Alice said a little too quickly. I looked at her curiously, but from the panicked look she was giving me, I knew better than to ask in front of everyone.

"Hey, Bella," a few of the guys greeted me. The others ignored my presence and I was fine with that.

"Hey, James, Emmett."

"You wanna play?" Emmett asked.

"I-" I was about to politely decline, when Edward interrupted.

"You can't be serious? It won't be any fun if she plays! Princess always picks truth." He complained, daring me with his eyes to contradict him.

Challenge accepted, I thought.

"Don't call me that, and yeah, I'll play," I said. James moved over so I could be a part of the circle.

"Truth or dare?" Emmett asked. As a total perv, I always dreaded whatever truth or dare he came up with.

Even though I wasn't looking at him, I could feel Edward's eyes daring me to say truth just so I could prove him right.

"Dare," I said confidently.

Emmett grabbed an empty beer bottle that someone had drank.

"You have to kiss whoever this bottle points to, boy or girl, for at least fifteen seconds," he said as he reached for his phone to start a timer.

"Fine." I tried not to look nervous as he spun the bottle. It spun quickly for a few seconds and I could feel my poker face falter with each passing second as the bottle finally slowed to a stop.

I looked up at who the bottle was pointing at to see who was unlucky enough to face this humiliation with me.

My gaze locked with a pair of smirking green eyes.

"HELL NO!" I exclaimed, pretty loudly.

"It looks like you have to kiss Edward!" Emmett sputtered out between bouts of laughter. I didn't see the humor in this particular situation. It was no secret that Edward and I despised each other.

Edward just laughed, the asshole. If he had to kiss himself, he'd protest too. How many girls had he kissed with that mouth? I shuddered just thinking about the numerous diseases that could be lurking in there.

"No! Absolutely not!" I adamantly refused.

"You have to! The forfeit is to run around the block naked," Alice said, giggling. Of course she was enjoying this. She'd always believed that the reason Edward and I constantly bickered was because of some underlying chemistry we shared or something ridiculous like that.

If this was any other neighborhood, I would have definitely chosen the second option, but this was my neighborhood, and I didn't want my neighbors, or, oh god, my father, seeing me in my birthday suit if they happened to look out the window.

Somehow, Edward knew that my resolve was weakening.

"Pucker up, Princess." He smirked, giving me his signature panty-dropping smirk.

"Kiss him, Bella!" James cheered.

"Yeah! Just kiss him." Didn't they have anything better to do with their lives than to force girls to kiss assholes?

The only way to shut them up would be to get the damn kiss over with.

Sighing in defeat, I walked to the other side of the circle where Edward was sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. He watched me with amusement as I sat down next to him. The way he was sitting made it awkward for me but I leaned over him, bringing my face closer to his. I made the mistake of keeping my eyes open.

"Eww, eww, no." I backed away. I heard the amused chuckles behind me but ignored them as I tried to mentally prepare myself for this nightmare. I suddenly understood how Tiana felt in Princess and the Frog. I would have burst out laughing at the thought of Edward of all people being a prince, but scowled instead. This was no laughing matter.

"What, you afraid of kissing little ol' me?" His eyes glinted with amusement, a smile playing at his lips.

I gritted my teeth. Fuck it, I thought. So what if I would need years of therapy after this kiss? It would be worth it to wipe the annoying grin off his face.

Leaning down again, I screwed my eyes shut as I crashed my lips to his. He must have been surprised at my sudden change of mood, but he didn't mention it as he kissed me back.

If I had thought that kissing Edward Cullen would be an unpleasant experience, I was wrong.

As soon as our lips touched I felt this weird electricity flow between us. It felt unlike any other kiss I'd had before and I became more into the kiss. He kissed me back with equal fervor and I tangled my fingers in his hair as he pulled me down onto his lap.

When his tongue stroked mine, I let out a quiet moan, and I heard a chuckle behind me.

It was at that moment that I remembered two things: 1) We had an audience, and 2) the person I was kissing so passionately was Edward. Edward freaking Cullen. My sworn enemy. He seemed to realize it at the exact moment I did and we both pulled away from each other. We both stared at each other, neither of us saying anything. Just stunned by what we had just done.

A loud cheer erupted among the guys in the circle and I felt a blush creep over my face as I wiped my mouth with my hand.

"That was a whole minute," Emmett said, looking up from his phone with an awed look on his face.

"Best kiss you ever had, Princess," Edward whispered in my ear. I involuntarily shivered.

"Ha! As if," I denied as I got up and moved away.

"I gotta go to the bathroom," I announced to no one in particular. I could hear the game continue on as I locked the door behind me.

I looked in the mirror. My cheeks were brighter and my lips were red from my intense makeout session. I involuntarily brought my hand up to touch my lips.

I had never had a kiss like that.

Ever.

And to make things worse, the person I had shared that kiss with was Edward Cullen.

Shit.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

**I know a few of you guys were wondering how often I would be updating. I have the first few chapters written already so for about a month or so I'll be updating every week. After that, though, I'll probably be updating every 1-3 weeks depending on how busy I am and when inspiration strikes.**

**P.S.**

**Characters belong to Stephenie Meyer &amp; Twilight, but the storyline, dialogue, etc all belong to ME. NO STEALING PLEASE.**

**P.P.S.**

**Comments are GREATLY APPRECIATED. You guys are the only feedback I get so I'd like to hear what you guys think of the story.**

**P.P.P.S.**

**If you guys like my story, I would appreciate it if you would follow me on Wattpad as well. It's under the same username (RedRoseMafia73) and this story is there but with original character names.**

**Now that we got all that out of the way, ONWARD AND FORWARD WITH THE STORY :)**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

The rest of the night I could feel him staring at me.

Even the couple times I looked in his direction, where most people would have diverted their gaze, his gaze was unrelenting. I shifted my body so my hair would curtain my face, but I couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling.

A few hours later, when everyone decided it was probably time to go to bed, I retreated to the bathroom to change into clothes more suitable for sleeping in.

After I was finished changing, I opened the door quickly. I was exhausted and just wanted to sleep. As I opened the door and took a step out the doorway, I ran straight into Edward. Surprised, I fell backwards but he wrapped his arms around me just in time to catch me. my hands were braced against his chest and it was at that moment that I realized he was shirtless, only wearing a pair of shorts.

I drew in a breath at our close proximity, and looked up into his eyes. His gaze drifted down my from my eyes to my lips and mine did the same to his.

I bit my lip as I remembered exactly what those lips were capable of.

I finally came to my senses when he slowly leaned his face closer to mine. I immediately pushed him backwards to free myself from his embrace. I couldn't help but stare his body, though, intrigued by the black lines contrasting boldly with his skin.

Yes, he had a tattoo. It was a series of lines that ran all up one arm and curled around his chest.

One day a few months ago he disappeared. Skipped school, didn't tell his parents, the whole bit. When he got home at three in the morning, his chest and one of his arms were covered with white bandages.

Apparently, (I wasn't there but this is all according to Alice) their parents had gone hysterical; their father, Carlisle, was a doctor at the local hospital and they were freaking out about how badly injured he was and why the hospital didn't call them.

But no, he wasn't injured.

He had been driving around with his idiot friends and had decided that it would be a good idea to get a tattoo, even though it was illegal at our age without a parent's consent.

His parents, needless to say, were pissed.

Here, now, with him shirtless, this was the first time I had gotten close enough to examine them. Oddly, I felt the urge to trace them with my hand. Involuntarily my arm started to raise up, before I came to my senses and snapped myself out of it, dragging my gaze from his body to his eyes.

My eyes got captured in his. They were such a pure and piercing green that I was stunned by their intensity. For once I actually saw what all the other girls saw. He was hot. God, did I just think that? What the hell was wrong with me?

"Did you even hear what I said?"

"What?" I blinked. "Yeah, of course. Sure, whatever." My mouth kept spitting out random words before I finally shut myself up.

"I said, take a picture. It'll last longer," he said, his eyes glowing with amusement.

"Why would I want a picture? Sorry to break it to you, but you are not that hot," I lied, unconvincingly even to my own ears. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't believe me either.

My eyes drifted back down to his chest one last time before I turned away and continue down the hallway to Alice's room.

"Last chance for a picture!" he called after me, laughing. Okay, that pissed me off. All the girly feelings that were inside me disappeared and I flicked him off over my shoulder as I kept walking.

"What was that about?" Alice asked, curious when I entered her room. Crap. I had been hoping she hadn't heard that.

"Nothing." I said as I sat down on the bed. She gave me a look that told me she didn't believe me. I knew she was going to want to keep talking about it so I said something that would make her want to drop the subject, too.

"What was your thing about? You know, earlier during Truth or Dare. Because you were acting really strange when you were asked who you last kissed." I looked at her pointedly.

"Nothing." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really? Are you sure you don't want to talk about it for hours and hours? Because even if you don't want to talk about it because there is nothing to talk about, that is exactly what we will do."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Okay, point taken. We can drop the subject."

"Thank you," I said sweetly, letting my body fall back on the bed.

"G'night, Bella," Alice said, turning off the light.

"G'night, Alice."

Pretty soon I could hear her light snoring but I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about that almost-kiss with Edward in the hallway. Did he want to kiss me? Did I _want_ him to want to kiss me? I was so confused my head hurt just thinking about it.

Thinking through it wasn't doing anything to clear my mind so I closed my eyes…

. ~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ * .~ *

When I woke up the next morning it was to a god-awful sound. I groaned, flipping my pillow out from under me and pulling it over my head to deafen the sound of the annoying music. I'd forgotten about Alice's stupid alarm.

A couple years back she had brilliant (note the sarcasm) idea to change her alarm clock from the ordinary beeping to a specific song and to place it on the other side of the room so that when it went off in the morning the annoying sound would make her get up, if nothing else but to turn it off. It had been a while since she had used it since it had been summer break, and I had totally forgotten about it. Until now. After a few minutes of listening to the incessant high pitched wailing of Justin Bieber, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Alice..." I mumbled into my pillow.

No answer.

"Alice, turn the damned thing off."

"Turn it off yourself! You'll have to get up eventually, Bella!" I heard from the hallway.

I reluctantly lifted my head from my pillow and glared at the doorway.

I dropped my head back to my pillow and groaned. Blindly, I felt around the nightstand, grabbed the nearest item I could find (which happened to be a hairbrush) and chucked it with impressive accuracy at the alarm clock. The hairbrush hit the alarm clock and it immediately shut up.

I breathed a sigh of a relief as I rested my head back on the pillow and closed my eyes.

"AND I WAS LIKE, BABY, BABY, BABY, OHHHH!"

I was going to kill Alice.

Eventually, I couldn't take the abuse to my ears and got up and turned it off.

Ugh. The first day of school. The awkwardest and most dreaded day of the year, at least for me. Who in their right mind looked forward to the beginning of a new school year? The idea of waking up at the butt crack of dawn every morning and going to a school with boring teachers who hate their jobs, dumb jocks who you wanted to high five in the face with a brick, and prissy popular girls who wore clothes five sizes too small was not appealing. It was probably worse than prison, so sue me if I didn't feel like going. Regardless of my own personal feelings, within an hour, I was ready to go.

I looked out the bedroom window, squinting at the usually-absent Washington sun. Edward had his and Alice's car waiting on the side of the road. I saw Alice walk out of the house and I immediately noticed that she'd curled her short black hair into perfect ringlets and she had gone all out; dress, heels, the works. I looked in the mirror at my own flat, brown hair, Supermario t-shirt, leggings, and converse. I sure as hell wasn't going to dress up today.

"C'mon, Princess, we don't have all day!" Edward yelled up at me.

"Stop calling me that!" I yelled back before backing away from the window and making my way down the stairs and through the front door. When they saw me, they entered the car and Edward started the engine.

"It took her that long to dress like that?" The way Edward said it made me think he was talking loud just so I could hear him through the windows. "No wonder she gets as much action as a white crayon."

I gasped. "Jackass!" His laughter echoed out the open windows.

I reached my hand towards the car door. My hand was millimeters away from the handle when the car jolted forward.

I gasped and jumped back in surprised and heard Edward's loud laugh coming from the open car window. I could see his face through the side mirror, throwing his head back and laughing his ass off. Yeah, let's all have a laugh at Bella's expense.

"Dammit, Edward!" I shouted.

I took a few steps forward to where the car was was now stopped. I cautiously raised my hand towards the door handle, wondering if he was going to drive forward again. When my hand was firmly around the handle, I finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief. Just as I was about to pull it open, the car lurched forward again, pulling me with it. I landed in a heap on the pavement.

"Bella!" Alice yelled. I could faintly hear the sound of a slap and a groan. "Edward, you're an ass," I heard her say. She unbuckled her seatbelt to get out to help me, but I had already gotten up. Brushing off the loose gravel from my clothes, I looked down at my palms which were red with a few scrapes.

Growling under my breath, I angrily started walking on the sidewalk in the direction of the high school. Who cares if it would take me five hours to get there? It was better than driving with Edward.

Instead of speeding off without me like I expected him to, Edward was inching the car along the road at my pace.

"Princess, get in the car."

I didn't even bother responding, I just kept walking.

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? Just get in the damn car, we're going to be late"

That made me stop. Edward, apologizing? I turned my head to look at him. To my surprise, he actually had a sincere look on his face.

I was still skeptical and highly suspicious as I reached for the door handle. This time, the car stayed still long enough for me to get in.

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"I'm just waiting for the moment when you both realize you're perfect for each other. I mean, he's exactly your type and that kiss! Epic," Alice sighed dreamily as we walked through the parking lot. Edward was trailing behind us from a distance so he didn't hear what she was saying. I looked over my shoulder to make sure he was out of earshot before responding.

"Uh, no, it wasn't. And even if it was, he was a total ass this morning, negating all past epicness," I denied, running my fingers over my palms. "And what do you mean he's exactly my type?!"

She raised her eyebrows at me. "Really, Bella? Really? You can try to fool me, but you can't fool yourself. If you both just got over yourselves you would realize that-"

"La la la la!" I put my earbuds in my ears so she'd take a hint and not talk about it anymore. I was looking down at my phone when I rammed straight into a guy. At least, I assumed he was a guy, given his height and hardness of his chest. My head collided with his chest and, given that I was such a lightweight, I literally bounced off him, landing on my ass on the pavement.

I could literally feel the bruise forming on my tailbone. I really needed to stop running into people. A hand reached down and helped me up and I gratefully took it.

When I was back on my feet, I looked up at the guy's face and was pleasantly surprised at how hot he was. Dark brown hair that fell into his eyes, a defined nose and jawline and deep-set brown eyes. "I-I-I'm sorry, I-I wasn't looking where I was going-" I stuttered.

"No worries," he smiled, and his eyes twinkled with amusement.

"I'm Jake." he gave me a smile. He still hadn't let go of my hand.

"Bella," I smiled back.

"Well, see you around, Bella," he flashed me a smile as he walked away.

"He's hot," Alice whispered following him with her eyes as he walked away. "And definitely new. I'd remember seeing him before."

I stared after him with her. I would have remembered him too.

"Girls," Edward scoffed and pushed past me forcefully.

"Who put the stick up his ass?" I said to Alice under my breath.

She stifled a laugh as we walked into the school.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Classes went as expected. Teachers introduced themselves and went over their syllabuses and I spent six hours fighting the urge to let their monotone voices put me to sleep. Now I had only one class to go: chemistry.

I stepped into the small classroom. I was one of the first to get to class since my previous class was only two doors down and I took the opportunity to look around. It had the usual science layout with lab tables with two stools each.

I sat down at one in the back of the classroom.

I watched as student after student walked in. When Edward walked in with a cheerleader (different from the one last night) on his arm, I rolled my eyes. So far today, Alice had been in four of my classes and I hadn't had Edward in any. I guess my luck had to run out eventually.

Lost in my thoughts, I had forgotten to look away. When he noticed me staring at him, he shot me one of those wink/head-nod combination things that guys always do.

Simultaneously rolling my eyes at him and shaking my head in disgust, I looked away. The teacher wasn't here yet so I took out the sketchbook I always carried around with me and a pencil. After taking a couple seconds to look for a subject, I settled for sketching the side profile of a guy one row up and two chairs to the left of me.

"Fancy seeing you here."

I looked up to see Jake sitting next to me.

"Oh, hi," I smiled, closing the sketchbook and placing the pencil on the cover. Maybe this class won't be so bad, I thought.

The teacher rushed in just as the bell rang. He didn't look that old but his advanced age was given away by the thinning patch of dark black hair that was turning silver atop his head. Old fashioned wire rimmed glasses hung from around his neck as he stumbled in, a handful of academic-looking folders and papers balanced precariously in one arm and a bulging briefcase dangling from the other.

Shutting the door behind him with his foot, he unceremoniously dropped his briefcase and papers onto his desk and turned towards us.

"Hello, class. I'm Mr. Marcus Volturi and I'll be your chemistry teacher for the semester. I know today is the first day of school so we're just going to get a few housekeeping things out of the way. First thing on the list: lab partners."

Almost immediately, people started giving their friends that look; you know the one. That creepy one worthy of a stalker or a pedophile? A few odd numbered groups of friends looked at each other in despair.

"Partners?" Jake mouthed to me and I nodded. The super hot new guy as my chem partner? Hell yes.

"Ah ah, not so fast. I'm picking your partners." Cue the chorus of groans...

Mr. Volturi picked up a stack of papers from his desk and started handing them out.

"To pass my class, you must learn how chemistry works, but you must also learn how to create chemistry. I chose your partners randomly and I encourage you to look past your differences and find a way to work well with the person you get partnered with whether you are fond of them or not. That, along with this two page Q and A packet, will be your homework for tomorrow."

By this point everyone was scowling. Homework? On the first day of school?

"When I call your name, stand up and sit next to your partner.

"In no particular order..." He put on his reading glasses from around his neck and picked up a clipboard from the mess on his desk.

"Jessica Stanley and Michael Newton." They both got up and sat down at a lab table together.

"Leah Clearwater and Jacob Black" Jake looked at me apologetically and stood up to go sit next to his partner.

Mr. Volturi went on and on and I drummed my fingers on the desk as I waited for my name to be called. As person after person stood up to sit next to their partner, I became aware that I was one of the only people still alone.

"Isabella Swan."

I stood up.

"And..." He trailed off as he stopped to turn the page.

"and Edward Cullen."

"What?" I blurted out involuntarily.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The whole class turned silent as everyone turned around to stare at me.

Immediately, my hands flew up to cover my mouth in mortification. Edward, rather than being equally disdained at the prospect of being partners with me, started laughing.

_Smooth, Bella. Real smooth_, I thought to myself. _Great first impression. I'm sure Mr. Volturi is going to think you're an_ _**amazing**_ _student. _

"Is there a problem?" Mr. Volturi looked at me over the rim of his glasses.

Just as I opened my mouth to respond with a respectful 'no', about five girls beat me to it.

"I'll be with Edward," they said at the same time, raising their hands. One of them was Emmett's partner.

"C'mon, babe, we can work this out," he tried to reason with her. Her name was Rosalie, I think. She gave him a disgusted look.

Edward gave her a wink.

_Gross_, I thought. _You can have him._

"Switching partners will not be allowed. The lab partner I assigned to you is going to be your lab partner for the entire semester."

I sat back down and pouted silently. Out of all the people why did I have to be partnered with _him_?

Edward sauntered his way over to me and sat in the seat next to me.

"Looks like we're partners," he waggled his eyebrows up and down.

I groaned, a little too loudly. Surprisingly, despite the distance between us and his age, Mr. Volturi heard me.

He looked in my general direction, and I diverted my eyes quickly.

Edward just laughed.

I hit him in the chest to shut him up, but that hurt my hand more than it hurt him. His chest was insanely hard.

"Shut up! He might look this way!" I hissed under my breath. I discreetly flexed my hand to make sure all my bones were aligned correctly. Sadly, he saw me, which made him laugh even harder. He didn't try to muffle it either. He threw his head back and laughed his freaking ass off. I couldn't help but notice how much more attractive it made him look but quickly cleared the thought from my mind.

"Ms. Swan, Mr. Cullen, is my teaching interrupting your conversation?" I looked down and felt a blush color my cheeks. The first day of school and Edward had already gotten me in trouble. Twice. I could only imagine what the rest of the semester was going to be like.

The rest of class was spent by Mr. Volturi discussing the curriculum for the year and me drawing. When I was younger I loved art and this fascination didn't go away as I got older. I got better and better until now, it was easy. Like breathing. I didn't think about who or what, I just drew. The bell rang and when I examined my sketch, I saw a pair of eyes staring back at me. There was something familiar about them and then I realized whose eyes they were.

No, no, no! First he had invaded my thoughts and now my sketches?! What the hell was wrong with me? I angrily ripped out the sheet of paper and crumpled it up, unceremoniously dropping it into the trash as I walked out of the classroom and headed to my locker.

Reading the combination off of my schedule, I opened it and started to put the books I had gotten today inside.

When I shut it, I was greeted with Edward's face.

"God!" I jumped nearly a foot into the air. I held a hand to my chest to calm my breathing.

"I've been called worse," he said with a smirk.

"What the hell, Edward? Would it kill you to knock?" I said, irritation clouding my brain and causing it to spew out the first words that came into my head.

He raised his eyebrows at me but complied, knocking on metal door of my locker.

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling and that just made him grin wider.

"So, are you following me now?" I asked him.

"Don't flatter yourself, Princess, this is my locker." He gestured to the one next to mine.

I looked at him in disbelief. To prove his statement, he quickly spun the combination and unlocked it.

"No, no, no," I groaned, hitting my head against my locker a few times.

Last year, my friend Angela had been unlucky enough to have her locker next to Edward's. Every day during passing time she'd get a show of him making out with some girl against not only his locker, but hers as well. She had asked him to move time and time again, but to no avail. She had eventually given up. The entire year she had to carry her books around in her backpack. _All_ of them. Now she was known as the hunchback of Forks High. Well, not really. But you get the point.

The big man upstairs must be pissed at me because I was pretty sure the universe was punishing me for something.

"You might wanna be careful, Princess, you're gonna kill some brain cells. I heard blondes don't have that many to begin with." I gave him the middle finger but let the blond joke slide.

"So when are we going to do this thing?" I asked him.

"Do what?"

I waved the packet from Mr. Volturi.

"Just come over later," he said, shutting his locker and swaggering off.

* * *

"Wait, so let me get this straight: you joined the _eco club? Why?" _I hadn't even been aware that our school _had_ an eco club.

"I needed more extracurriculars," Alice shrugged.

"So not only do I have to drive to and from school with Edward everyday, but I have to be _alone_ with him?!"

"Thank your lucky stars, Princess. Do you know how many people would kill to be alone with me?" a voice called from behind.

I rolled my eyes, but ignored it.

"Just on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Don't be so dramatic. You know, if you want, you can join-"

"Uh, thanks, but no thanks," I scrunched up my nose. Don't get me wrong, helping the environment was great and all, but it wasn't for me.

"Okay then," she said, a small smile on her face. It seemed kind of odd considering i just turned her down, but I disregarded it. It was probably nothing.

_BEEEP_. _BEEEP. BEEEEEEEEEEP_. A car horn honked. I had no doubt in my mind whose car it was.

"Satan's calling." I sighed. "See you tomorrow."

"See ya!" Giving me a quick hug, she practically skipped back into the school.

I stood there, staring at her. There was something off with her, I just couldn't put my finger on what.

"Are you coming or not? I'm gonna leave you here!" Edward called from the driver seat of his car.

Breathing a heavy sigh, I got into the car.

"Took you long enough," he complained as he peeled out of the parking lot. Not even a minute on the road and we heard the tell-tale bells of an approaching train. The red and white striped bars on the sides of the road came down in front of the tracks just as Edward hit the brakes. The car squealed to a stop, just inches from the bars.

He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. "Awesome," he muttered.

As a freight train rumbled along the tracks, I glared at it. It seemed to go on forever, almost like a magician pulling a handkerchief from his sleeve.

After a few more minutes of watching the Amazing Never-Ending Train, I discreetly started moving my hand in small movements, willing the train to end. Who knew, maybe I had super powers and didn't know it.

"Are you sure you're not supposed to be a blonde? Because if you were, you would totally be living up to your hair color right now. Telekinesis, Princess, really?" He was looking at me like I was crazy, but I could hear the undertone of laugher in his voice.

"Fuck you. And stop calling me that!" I couldn't help but laugh, though. Even I had to admit that was pretty funny.

I heard a gasp at my colorful language and looked out my window to see a woman giving me a hardcore I-am-so-judging-you look from the driver seat of her minivan. I could tell by her pink cardigan and perfectly done hair that she was one of those moms who was part of the school PTA and baked birthday treats for her child's class from scratch because her little Jimmy was allergic to gluten.

To see what had caught my attention, Edward ducked his head a little to look through my window. I could practically see the gears turning in his head and the lightbulb go off when he got an idea. Oh no. I could tell by the mischievous glint in his eye that I wasn't going to like this.

"I can't believe you would use such foul and unladylike language. What would your father say?" Edward reprimanded me loudly enough so the woman would hear. His mouth was turned down in a disapproving frown, but his eyes were twinkling as he shook his head and _tsk tsk_-ed me.

I glared daggers at him and was about to tell him off, but the lady beat me to it.

"You should listen to your friend, young lady. He seems like a good role model, and from the sound of it, you need one." the woman said in a shrill voice.

The train _finally_ passed and the bars rose.

"I'm glad she's not my daughter," I heard her say to someone next to her before she drove away.

My mouth gaped open in shock.

Keeping his eyes on the road, Edward reached over with his right hand and lifted my chin to close my mouth.

"You might want to close your mouth; you don't want to catch flies." He laughed.

"Shut. Up. And. Drive."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Fifteen minutes later I was standing at the door to his room. The house was eerily quiet since Alice wasn't here and since her and Edward's parents were at work.

He walked in a few steps before turning around when he realized I hadn't followed him in.

Assuming I was waiting for an invitation, he gestured me to enter.

I tried but my feet were rooted at the doorway.

"What's wrong with you? Come in." he looked confused and I didn't blame him. He probably didn't remember what happened last time I went into his room.

_**FLASHBACK**_

"_C'mon Edward! Where's my sketchbook!" I whined, stomping my foot._

"_Sorry, Princess, you steal my comic book, I steal your sketchbook. It's only fair." He crossed his arms across his chest._

"_Stop calling me that! We're thirteen not six. And I didn't steal your comic book! That was Alice!" Of course, it wasn't, but he didn't know that._

"_You'll never find it. It's not like it's in my room or anything," he snickered but he diverted his gaze when he said __**my room**__. _

"_Ah ha!" I yelled as I ran to his room, as fast as my socks could go on the smooth wood floor._

_Throwing his door open, I ran in. Too late, I saw the green slimy goo covering the ground, making the wood floor ten times as slippery. With no grip from my socks, I slid across the room and face planted onto his bed. I sighed in relief that I hadn't crashed into something sharp or dangerous. I lifted my head and opened my eyes and screamed. My face had landed directly onto a pile of his used boxers and socks._

"_Edward!" I screamed and ran to the bathroom, trying to sanitize my face and rid it of Edward's germs._

_**END FLASHBACK **_

In the end, I got my sketchbook back after Edward's mom made him give it back to me, but needless to say, I was scarred for life and never went in there again.

"Why don't we just work in the living room," I meekly suggested and turned around to go there.

"I promise, there isn't any slimy goo or boxers anywhere, I promise." I turned in disbelief. How did he know what I was thinking?

I didn't move though.

"Come on, don't be such a baby," he grabbed my hand to drag me into his room and I involuntarily hissed at the unexpected sting of pain.

He stopped at the sound and flipped my hand over, palm up, exposing the angry red scrapes. The he grabbed the other one and did the same thing.

"What happened to your hands?" He looked…concerned? No, that couldn't be right.

I looked at him in disbelief and gave a harsh laugh. "You and your stupid car prank."

His eyebrows furrowed and his lips turned down in a frown as he gently ran his fingertips over one of my palms. My breathing sped up as I felt the same electricity from last night travel up my arm.

As if he felt it too, he dropped my hand as if he had been burned.

"Stop doing that!" I snapped.

"Doing what?" he snapped back.

"Acting like you care one minute and acting like a dick the next! It's giving me whiplash!"

He turned and walked into his room.

"I'm not acting," I thought I heard him mutter, but his back was to me so I didn't know if I had imagined it.

I cautiously followed him.

He plopped down onto his bed and gestured for me to sit. I sat across from him and looked around. I hadn't been in Edward's room in years, but I guess I had been expecting it to be the same. The bright blue walls had changed to a dark navy color and the comforter was a bright red. It was cleaner than I had thought it would be. Cleaner than my room, even.

Edward's voice drew me out of my thoughts. "Favorite color?" he was looking at the homework packet.

I was going to say green, but my mouth had different ideas. "Green." My mind filled with the sight of his bright green eyes. I shook my head to clear it. What the hell?

"That's the most generic answer ever," he scoffed.

I shook my head to clear it. "Fine, what's your favorite color."

"Red." I wrote it down.

"Favorite book?" I asked.

When he didn't answer, I looked up to see him writing in answers.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I already know all this stuff," he gestured to the packet. He had already finished the front page.

"How?" I asked, confused.

"I've known you for like twelve years. Believe it or not, I do pay attention."

I don't know why but I felt my cheeks warm up.

We finished faster than I'd expected, and I didn't have anything else to do so I just stayed in his room. He was lying on his back perpendicular to the bed and was bouncing a tennis ball against the wall rhythmically. I was leaning against the headboard and had my knees curled up to my chest, sketching a poster on the wall and listening to music from my phone through my earbuds. My phone was on the bed and I was so focused on my sketch that I didn't notice when he picked it up.

All of a sudden the loudest rock song I'd ever heard boomed in my ears, full blast. I jumped, yanking the headphones out of my ears as fast as I could in an awkward dance trying to remove the blasting noise.

He laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

Once I was safe from the eardrum-damaging music, I glared at him.

"Calling you satan would be an insult to satan."

"You know it, babe." I knew it shouldn't but his use of 'babe' with me made my heart flutter.

_Come on, Bella. Get a grip,_ my subconscious reminded me.

I rolled my eyes at him and he stuck out his tongue at me in a childish fashion. Then he returned to throwing the tennis ball against the wall.

I resumed my sketching, but this time I had a new subject.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N**

**I know this chapter is a little late and a little short but I've been really busy with school and didn't have a chance to write very much these past couple of weeks. With finals coming up, updates might be a little slow so don't think I've abandoned the story if I don't post for a few weeks (once summer rolls around I'll be updating more regularly so please bear with me).**

**Also, this is kind of random but I had a comment recently asking how long this story will be...honestly, I don't know. Right now I'm planning on it being at least twenty chapters, but I don't think it will be more than thirty. So if you guys wanna see what happens with the story, you gotta stick around till the end :)**

**Okay, I'm done, I promise. You can read the story now :)**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

By the time Friday finally rolled around, I was bored out of my mind and the novelty of the new school year had worn off. I had to keep from reminding myself that it was only the first week of school or I was sure I would lose all motivation to come back on Monday.

Right now I was in my free period, and since I had a history assignment due Monday figured that now was as good a time as any to at least start it. Finding the general location of the World War I history book I was looking for in the nonfiction section of the school library, I scanned the shelves. I slid some books to the side and heard a click like a gun being cocked. I froze. A loud gunshot echoed behind me and I screamed, dropping to the ground and covering my head with my hands.

"Shhh!" A librarian came around the bookshelf to silence me, and found me on the ground, hands covering my head like we were doing a tornado drill. She gave me a strange look before walking away.

As soon as she was out of earshot, I heard laughing from my left and recognized the voice instantly.

"Damn you, Edward! What the hell?" As I got to my feet, I put a hand to my chest to calm my heart which was going into overdrive.

He was leaning against the bookshelf with his phone in his hand.

"Ahhhh!" he mocked, covering his head. "You should have seen your face!" He laughed. I reached over and flicked him on the forehead, hard.

"Owww." He backed away, massaging his forehead. "Violent much?"

"You know stalking is a crime, right?" I called behind me as I turned to find the book I was looking for.

"Ah, Princess, you have much to learn. I'm far too pretty to have to stalk anyone." I turned back to look at him. He was leaning against a bookshelf, looking all godlike. He was wearing a navy v-neck that was tight and showed off his defined arms. His black jeans hung low on his hips.

"Achoo," I faked a loud, exaggerated sneeze. Then another. "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm allergic to bullshit." Dragging my gaze away as not to reveal what I was really thinking, I turned my face towards the bookshelf.

He walked up to me and stood between me and the shelf.

"So you're not attracted to me at all?" he asked.

"Nope. I think you're overestimating your appeal." I shrugged nonchalantly.

He slowly sauntered closer to me and I stepped back. A little closer. Another step back. We kept up this little dance until I felt the the opposite shelves pressing against my back. I bit my lip at his close proximity.

"Move." I raised my hand, bracing it against his chest. I could feel his heart beating through his shirt.

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"Can you honestly tell me you're not attracted to me? Tell me you don't want me to kiss you, and I'll walk away." He ran the pad of his thumb gently over my bottom lip.

I slapped his hand away. "I don't want you to kiss me. So are you going to move? Or do I physically have to move you myself?" I glared at his chest, careful not to look into his eyes. He leaned in close and he skimmed my neck with his nose, slowly making his way up to my ear.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" he whispered in my ear and I felt my eyelids flutter as I gave a slight involuntary shudder.

"Yes. Now, move." I tried to say convincingly, but my voice had gone up an octave. Dammit. What the hell was wrong with me?

I heard his quiet chuckle and that pissed me off. Pushing his chest, I pushed him a few inches back and lifted my chin and looked him straight in the eye.

"What do you want, Edward?"

As I said this, his gaze shift down from my eyes to my lips and my own did the same to his.

I don't know if it were him or I who moved but before I knew it our lips had collided and his tongue was fighting with mine for dominance. On their own accord, my hands went up to tangle themselves in his dark hair as one of his went to my waist while the other went to the back of my neck.

"Hm hmm."

My eyes automatically opened at the unexpected sound and found myself staring directly into the stern face of Mr. Volturi.

Shit.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

We quickly pulled apart and Edward moved to stand in front of me, staring Mr. Volturi down. I ran a hand through my hair to straighten it out since it had become messy and tousled.

I felt the blood rushing to my face as I thought about just how my hair had gotten to its current disheveled state.

"Both of you, come with me." He turned around and started walking towards the exit. I was surprised he didn't yell and publicly chastise us for our inappropriate behavior.

We followed behind him all the way to his room. I could see the bystanders laughing at my expense and I felt my cheeks blush an even deeper shade of red as my mortification increased.

I looked up at Edward with wide eyes. What if Mr. Volturi gave us detention? Sure, it wasn't anything new for Edward, but I had never gotten detention in my life (except for that one time in sixth grade, but in my defense, that girl totally deserved to be punched).

When we reached his classroom, he opened the door for us and gestured for us to sit in the front two desks.

He got behind his desk and leaned forward, folding his hands.

"When I told you to work on your chemistry, this wasn't what I had in mind."

I felt my cheeks flush. Again.

"No one reads history books anyway I don't see the problem," Edward shrugged.

I slapped his arm. "Shut up!" I hissed.

"I would listen to your, uh, friend, Mr. Cullen. As I'm sure you're aware, this school has a very strict no PDA policy."

I bowed my head, waiting to hear my punishment.

"So I better not see that again." My head snapped up, and I looked at him in surprise. That was it?

He looked at both of us pointedly.

When neither of us said anything, he waved his hand as if he was trying to shoo us away.

"Okay, both of you, go."

I didn't have to be told twice. I hightailed out of there, Edward following behind me at a much more leisurely pace.

"Stop freaking out, we didn't even get in trouble," Edward said.

I turned to him.

"How can you be so calm about this? We could have seriously gotten into trouble and it's all your fault!" I hissed.

"All my fault? Seriously, Princess? If I remember correctly, and I do, I believe there were two of us participating in our little library rendezvous."

I flushed as I remembered.

"Well you better cherish that memory because that is never happening again." I crossed my arms over my chest.

When his eyes immediately became glued there, I looked down and immediately dropped my arms and glared at him.

"Whatever you say," he smirked and headed in the opposite direction.

* * *

"I heard Edward was caught making out with some girl in the library. Will he ever learn?" Alice said, taking a bite from her sandwich.

I started choking on the gourmet (note the sarcasm) Lunchables pizza in my mouth and immediately gulped down some coke, attempting to breathe, but epically failing.

"Oh em gee, are you okay?" She handed me a napkin.

"Yeah…" *cough cough* "fine." I managed to choke out in between coughs, drinking some more coke.

"Well, Edward is always going to be Edward, I suppose," she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, I guess." I shifted my gaze downwards and I searched my mind for a different subject to distract her with so she wouldn't notice my guilty expression.

"Did you hear what Tanya Denali was doing all summer?" It was the first thing that came to mind.

"You mean, who she was doing?" She immediately dove into her opinion of the matter and I tried to pay attention, I did, but I kept getting distracted by a pair of green eyes staring at me from across the cafeteria. When he noticed me looking back, he did the most infuriating and cliche thing ever.

He winked.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N**

**I'M SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED UNTIL NOW! I was on vacation the last month and didn't have time to update. Good news is, now that I'm back, you guys can expect my usual one-to-two week update schedule :)**

**I live for reviews so let me know what you think of the story so far. Anyone shipping Bella and Edward yet? Or Bella and Jake?**

* * *

**Chapter 8**

One lunch and one class later, I was walking into chemistry class.

"Hey, Bella." I turned slightly to see Jake standing behind me.

"Uh, hi." I smiled.

"See you around," he smiled before making his way to his desk.

As I turned to walk towards mine, I saw a few girls giving me glares. Rolling my eyes, I sat down next to Edward, who was already here for once.

As Mr. Volturi walked in, his gaze immediately found mine, shifting his gaze from me to Edward and giving us a pointed look.

Taking the subtle hint, I scooted my chair as far away from Edward as possible while still remaining at the lab table.

Edward laughed. "Is that really necessary?" He whispered, the barely controlled laughter obvious in his voice.

"Yes!" I hissed. "Did you see the way he was looking at us?" I pointed towards Mr. Volturi who was writing some equation on the whiteboard.

"I understand if you can't control yourself around me, I do, but you dont have to make excuses." He said sincerely before flashing me a grin.

He couldn't be serious. Flicking him off, I turned towards the front and decided to pay attention for once and ignore Edward.

* * *

_3 Weeks Later_

As Edward pulled out of the school parking lot, I once again cursed Alice for joining that stupid eco-club.

Using his left hand to steer, Edward reached over with his right and started fiddling with the dial of the radio.

Once the announcer started talking about touchdowns, I knew this was the sports station. I glared at the side of his face. He knew that I _hated_ sports with a burning passion (what was exciting about a bunch of grown men chasing after a ball?) and I knew by the smirk on his face that he had done it on purpose.

"Uh, I don't think so." I reached over and changed it to a random channel, not caring what it was as long as it wasn't sports.

"Hey! My car, my radio." He reached over again, and took his eyes off the road to look over at the digital display on the dashboard so he could change it to the station he wanted.

"Keep your eyes on the road!" I snapped, slapping his hand away, "And both hands on the wheel. I really don't feel like dying today." Just as I was about to just turn the radio off altogether, my phone vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans and I reached to get it.

Just one glance at the caller ID had me hitting ignore, not caring if she knew I was ignoring her call or not. Ten years of nearly radio silence and _now_ she wants to talk? No, thank you.

"Who was that?" he asked, keeping his eyes on the road.

"No one important." I shrugged.

The phone rang three more times but I hit ignore every time.

Edward gave me a look, but didn't comment, and for that I was grateful. I really didn't feel like talking about it right now.

My phone rang again. And again. And again. And I hit ignore. Again. And again. And again.

Then it went silent and I was just about to put it back in my pocket, relieved that she had given up, when it rang again. Irritated now, I answered it.

"Take a hint already! If I wanted to talk to you I would have answered!" I snapped into the phone.

"Bella." a male voice said.

Stunned, I pulled the phone from my ear and looked at the caller ID. To my horror, it was my dad. Oops.

"Oh, hey, Dad. What's up?" I said, sheepishly.

"Bella, you and I need to talk." I could tell by the stern and disapproving tone of his voice that i would not like what was about to come out of his mouth.

"About?" I tried to think of what I could have done wrong recently but was coming up blank.

"Your mother called." I rolled my eyes. So she was stalking him too?

"Did you ignore her calls, too?" I asked him.

The corner of my mouth turned up at his poor attempt to mask his laugh with a cough.

"She said she wants to talk to you." he said.

"If she wanted to talk to me she should have called a long ass time ago." I said bluntly.

Edward looked over at me curiously but didn't comment as he turned his eyes back to the road.

"Language." My dad gently scolded before continuing. "I know that what she did was unforgivable, but she's still your mother." I could tell even he didn't believe his words. He had as much reason to hate her as I did.

"She was never a mother to me, and you know it." He didn't argue with me there.

"Just promise you'll call her." he said.

I crossed the fingers on my free hand where it was resting on my knee. "Sure, Dad I will, bye!" I lied before quickly hanging up.

When I looked up, I realized that we were already in the driveway of the Cullens' house.

"Thanks for the ride," I muttered as I got out of the car.

"Yeah." I heard him say just before I shut the door. Slinging my backpack over one shoulder, I crossed the front lawn to get to my own. Once at the front door, I bent over to pick up the potted plant at the doorstep and pulled out the key from underneath it.

Before I even had a chance to put the key in the hole, the door opened.

A tall woman with dark brown hair and blue eyes stood at the doorway. Her right hand was holding the door while her left was on her hip. I could see the giant rock on her ring finger and rolled my eyes. It probably cost as much as my dad's car.

Just one glance at her and you could tell she was wealthy. Her royal blue dress reminded me of one I had seen a celebrity wear on the red carpet last week and her pearl studs and necklace and nude pumps looked as if they had been picked out by a designer just for that particular dress.

Her hair was done in a perfect bun, not a hair out of place and her light makeup was done expertly to both accent her features as well as hide the slight wrinkles in the corners of her eyes and mouth, which were turned up in a smile.

"Hello, Isabella." she said.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Mother."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Completely ignoring her presence, I pushed past her and into the living room. I didn't even bother to kick off my shoes before tossing my backpack onto the couch and entering the kitchen.

I heard her heels clicking behind me on the hardwood floor, but I ignored her. Pulling the fridge door open, I pulled out a can of Mountain Dew. Flicking the tab open, I took a sip.

"So how have you been?" I sucked in air, choking on the soda. Choking turned to laughter as I doubled over.

"That's rich." I sputtered.

"Excuse me?"

"You left me and dad to go marry your super rich CEO boss, barely contacted me for ten years, and now you show up out of the blue and have the nerve to ask how I've been?" I looked at her incredulously.

She folded her hands in front of her on the island in the kitchen before opening her mouth to speak. "I know I've made mistakes in the past-"

"Understatement," I coughed.

She gave me a look before continuing.

"Your father and I, we got married too young, and I wasn't ready to be a mother-"

"Or a faithful wife, apparently" I said under my breath.

"I guess I deserved that, but what I came here to say is that I want to be a part of your life now."

I laughed but it was more out of anger than humor at the situation.

"Don't you believe me?" She had a hurt look on her face. She had no right to look hurt after everything.

"You don't get to come back after ten years and decide you suddenly want to play mommy. It doesn't work like that. I may have needed a mom then, but I sure as hell don't now."

With that, I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door.

"Bella! Wait!"

Ignoring her, I stalked across the front lawn into the Cullens'. I stabbed the doorbell until Edward answered.

He opened the door. "Alice isn't here, Princess, but since you knew that, I guess that must mean you're looking for me." He raised an eyebrow. "I charge for my services you know." he winked.

_Gross_. "Not now, Edward, I just need a place to crash for tonight."

"Isn't your house right there?" he pointed towards my house, where my mother was standing at the front door, watching.

"No shit, Sherlock. Can I stay here or not?" I snapped.

"Depends. What do I get out of it?" he crossed his arms and leaned against the doorway, lifting an eyebrow expectantly.

He couldn't possibly be serious, but by the look on his face and the mischief in his eyes, I could tell that he was.

I really wasn't in the mood to play games. "Forget it," I muttered before turning. I'd just catch a bus to the library or a Starbucks or something and head back in a few hours when she'd most likely be gone.

"Hey," Edward grabbed my arm unexpectedly and I turned, "What?" I snapped.

Without saying a word, he opened the door wider and gestured for me to enter.

I walked past him. "Thanks" I muttered as I headed to the living room.

"Are you gonna tell me what happened to make so pissy?" he asked unexpectedly.

"Nope." I plopped myself on the couch.

Taking out my phone and my sketchbook from my backpack, I searched for a loud song to drown my thoughts with while I drew.

Before I was even halfway through my songs list, a cold and heavy item fell onto my lap followed by a smaller item.

I lifted my gaze to see a carton of ice cream and a spoon sitting on my lap and a small smile formed on my face. Ice cream always made me feel better, regardless of the situation, and just the sight of this beautiful dairy product lifted my spirits.

"Thought you'd like a visit from your old friend, Rocky." he grinned before sitting down on arm chair a few feet away, a bag of chips in his lap and the TV remote in his hand.

I was confused for a second until I looked at the label. _Rocky Road_. Taking off the lid, I was about to take a bite when I came to my senses and looked at the spoonful of ice cream suspiciously. "Did you poison it?"

"No!" he looked insulted that I would even accuse him of this but I knew him better than that.

I sniffed it, still not trusting him enough to take a bite.

"Look, I'll prove it." Taking the spoon from my hand, he lifted it up in a "cheers" motion before shoving the spoon into his mouth.

"Satisfied? I'm not dead." he said, licking the spoon for good measure before sticking it back into the ice cream so it stood upright.

"No. You ate my ice cream" I pouted. "and contaminated my spoon" I frowned at my poor spoon.

"It's not like we haven't swapped spit before."

I cringed and screwed my eyes shut "Ew." I said, trying to erase the visual.

He gave me a quick grin before turning his attention back to the TV.

We both fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes as I ate my ice cream and he ate his chips, the TV running in the background.

After a few moments, I broke the silence.

"Thanks." I said quietly, playing with the spoon.

He didn't look away from the TV. "For what."

"For being so nice to me" Come to think of it, he had been nice to me for a while now. And I towards him. At that moment, I started replaying our recent interactions in my head.

Although on the surface, everything seemed normal, there was a noticeable difference between us. We still argued, but there was something different. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but all I knew was that I could trace it back to our first kiss.

Then a thought crossed my mind. Could it be that I was actually losing my mind and was falling for Edward?

_No, not falling for. Being corrupted by,_ my subconscious corrected me.

I agreed with her. Edward Cullen had corrupted and invaded my every thought and I couldn't seem to shake him.

As I glanced at him again I had this unnerving feeling that I was screwed no matter how this ended.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

I woke up when I heard a familiar voice. At first it sounded sort of like gibberish, a mash of random syllables, but as I slowly regained consciousness, my mind heard actual words, my name among them.

Cracking first one eye open and then the other, I saw Edward slumped over, asleep, on the the arm chair, arms crossed over his chest. A lock of his hair had fallen into his face over one eye and I had the strangest urge to brush it away. Giving myself a mental shake to clear my head, I looked to the doorway to see my father, talking with Esme and Carlisle, Edward and Alice's parents. I could see through the glass window in the door that it was dark outside. I discreetly pulled out my phone to check the time - it was just past eight o'clock. Last I remembered, it was about five and I had just finished my homework. When my father turned his gaze towards me, I quickly shut my eyes and pretended to be asleep, but it was too late.

"I saw that, Bella. Get up, we're going home."

_Dammit_. Opening my eyes, I scowled as I sat upright.

"We'll just leave you two talk," Esme said, as she and pulled Carlisle into the kitchen.

"Good luck," He mouthed to me as his wife pulled him away.

"C'mon, Bella, let's go home."

"What's the rush I sleep over here all the time." I yawned, stretching my neck and shoulders.

"You left your mother at home, alone. Good news is, she's still waiting for you." He gave me a pointed look.

"She's still there?" I was genuinely shocked. I had thought she would have left by now. Turns out I had underestimated her resolve to ruin my life.

"Yes, now come home." With that, he walked outside.

Sighing, I got up, gathering my things and slinging my backpack over one shoulder.

Alice came down the stairs the at same exact moment, phone to her ear.

"Hey," I said.

She mouthed 'hey' back, giving me a wave, along with something that was something along the lines of "talk tomorrow".

I nodded and giving me a wave goodbye, she headed into the kitchen.

I exhaled loudly, already dreading going home.

As I walked past the armchair where Edward was sleeping, I felt something wrap itself around my wrist.

I jumped, eyes darting to my arm, half afraid to see what it was. I relaxed when I saw it was Edward's hand. I hadn't notice him wake up.

I looked down at him curiously.

"You good?" he asked quietly, his green eyes searching my brown ones. He nodded his head towards the open door.

I didn't respond for a moment, frozen in shock.

"Uh...yeah." I eventually stuttered.

His strange action unnerved me. I didn't know what to make of it and thus said the first thing on my mind.

"You can..uh...let go now," I said awkwardly.

"Right." He blinked, breaking out of the trance and dropping my wrist.

Without saying another word, I picked up my backpack and walked as casually as I could out the door.

Not even two minutes later I was walking into my house.

My mother was sitting on the recliner, one leg crossed over the other, her hands folded in her lap. She looked so out of place it was kind of funny.

My father was standing in between me and her, arms crossed over his chest. Now, I could see he was still wearing his uniform, gun and all. He had probably come over to the Cullen's house to get me directly after work and hadn't had time to change.

"I made some tea," my mother gestured in front of her to the small coffee table in the living room where a kettle and two teacups sat.

"I don't like tea." I lied.

"Bella." My dad warned.

"Well at least sit down." Who was she to tell me to sit down in my own house? I obliged, however, plopping down as far away from her as possible; which happened to be on the loveseat.

"What are you doing here?" I cut to the chase.

She looked at my father once before turning back to me. "I was serious before. I do want to be in your life now. From now on, whether you want me here or not, I'm here."

"You can't actually be okay with this?" I looked at my father incredulously.

"She is your mother." He shrugged. "And it'll be good for you to have a female influence in your life."

I snorted. "And you expect _her _to be the best influence on me?"

"Bella-" he warned.

"Charlie, it's alright." She interrupted him and turned to me. "Bella, I know I haven't been the best role model, but I'm going to be around more and try to make up for the past."

As she started telling me how we were going to be like real mother and daughter from now on, I zoned out, my thoughts drawn elsewhere. The house next door, to be exact.

Why had Edward asked me if I was okay? Did he care? Did I _care_ if he cared? I felt a warm fuzzy feeling spreading in my stomach and as soon as I recognized what it was, I squashed it down.

_No! Don't you freaking dare have feelings for him, Bella. He's the devil. He's the asshole-by-day, manwhore-by-night next door. He's your best friend's brother. You will absolutely, under no circumstances fall for him._

I repeated it like a mantra in my head. It was all mind over matter right?

_I will not fall for Edward. I will not fall for Edward. I will not fall for Edward._

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**A/N**

**I'd really appreciate it if you guys would check out my new one shot** _**Pinky Swear.**_ **It's a Rosalie/Emmett story that's super cheesy but I had the idea so I thought 'why not?' and wrote it :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N**

**I am so so sorry for the super long wait. I've had this chapter written for a couple days now, I just didn't know how to make it flow properly, if that makes any sense. Anyway, it's here now so enjoy and leave me a review about what you think :)**

* * *

**Chapter 11**

After a few weeks of desperately trying to get over my almost-sorta feelings for Edward, I had given up. I, Bella Swan, had officially given up. I finally admitted it to myself and had stopped fighting it, officially reaching the fifth stage: acceptance. It was pathetic, really, just how under my skin he had gotten. But just because I liked him, there was no way in hell I'd tell him that.

Every time I saw a girl hanging around him I found myself getting irrationally jealous. It was absolutely ridiculous.

As I walked into chemistry, I passed Jake. He smiled at me and I smiled back. He and I had become good friends since we had a couple classes together.

When I sat down at my seat, I felt a cold chill. Well, a metaphorical one. Edward was sitting frigid next to me, a scowl on his face.

"That time of the month, again?" I asked. I was expecting some smartass remark, but he ignored me as the bell rang to signal the beginning of class.

Mr. Volturi immediately began class and I decided to ignore Edward's foul mood and pay attention.

Near the end of class, he told everyone to put away their notebooks and came around to the front of his desk carrying a stack of papers.

"Today, you will all be starting a project. This will be your big project for the semester. You will have to research a particular subject in chemistry and do an experiment as well as write a paper detailing everything you do and what you observe. I've written down the specifics of what you need on this rubric here," he waved a stack of papers in his hand and handed the pile to a guy at the very front. Taking one, he passed it down.

When I finally got a copy my eyes immediately flew to a bold 'five'. The paper had to be at least five pages long.

"Seriously?" I muttered.

"As you can see, the due date isn't until the end of the semester so you have all of November and December, as well as the first week in January to complete your project. Since I am giving you so much time, I expect you to put a lot of effort into this project. I don't care how you divide up the work, but I expect both people in each group to contribute to the project."

I groaned as I dropped my face into my hands. With Edward as my partner, I was sure to be doing all the work.

I looked up again just in time to see a girl in the front raised her hand.

"Can this project be on anything?"

"Good question, Kate, but no. You will be picking subjects out of a hat," He held up an old black top hat from behind him.

Since Edward and I sat in the back, we were one of the last to choose.

"Pick a good one, Princess," he said.

"Wow, he talks," I sarcastically muttered.

He rolled his eyes as I reached in and grabbed the first slip of paper my fingers came in contact with.

"The Effects of Temperature on Reaction Time," I read aloud.

"I thought I told you to pick a good one?" Edward muttered under his breath as Mr. Volturi walked over to the next group.

I was irritated already by this stupid project. He probably wouldn't be working on the project anyway so why the hell was he so pissed off?

I turned to him and put my hands over my heart in a sincere gesture. "Edward, I am so sorry that I failed you. But I promise, next time, I'll pick an amazing one to make you forget this failure of mine." I closed my eyes sadly for a moment before breaking character and throwing him a glare before turning back to the front of the class.

The corners of my mouth turn up when I heard his quiet laughter next to me.

My work here is done.

Mr. Volturi started to speak again.

"Well, I don't have anything else planned for today and since we have a little under ten minutes left of class, I'll give you the rest of the time to discuss your projects with your partners."

Thats what we were supposed to do, but no one actually did. People dispersed to talk with their friends about anything other than school.

As Edward went over to Emmett and James and a couple of girls, I decided to use the time to draw.

"Hey, Bella."

I looked up. "Hey, Jake," I smiled.

He looked around the room. "I have a feeling that even though we have all this time to do this project, more than half the people will be doing it the night before the due date."

I laughed. "I'll probably be one of those people." I said truthfully.

"I didn't think you were the procrastinating type."

I shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a girl with many talents."

"Yeah, about that. I, uh, wanted to ask you something." He put his hands in his front pockets, a nervous gesture. I looked at him curiously.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date with me."

For some reason, my eyes drifted over his shoulder to where Edward was talking with some girl, Tanya Denali, the school whore, as she flipped her hair and gave him a fake laugh.

"Maybe Friday night?" he continued.

"Uh, I can't I'm busy." I actually was, I wasn't just trying to let him down easy. This Friday was Halloween and Alice, Edward and I always had a tradition of telling their parents we were passing out candy to little kids but really, we shut off all the lights and watched movies while we ate all the candy ourselves.

"Oh." Jake said. Then I looked at Edward and Tanya again.

"Saturday will work though," I suggested before I could stop myself.

"Okay. So let's say Saturday around seven?"

"Sure," I said.

He turns to make my way back to his desk and glance at the clock. Only a minute left until the bell rang. I started putting my stuff in my backpack.

"What did he want?" I jumped a little when I heard Edward's voice next to me.

I was surprised at his cold tone.

"Why do you care?" Curiosity made me ask just as the bell rang.

Everyone slowly emptied out of the classroom, Edward behind me.

"I don't." I heard him say as we walked out of the classroom and into the hallway.

"Hey guys!" I turned towards her to see Alice.

By the time I looked back towards Edward, he was walking away.

"Sooo what did I miss?" Alice asked when she noticed Edward's retreating form.

"I don't know what's with him but Jake asked me out," I said.

She squealed. Like literally squealed.

"Awww, you guys would be so cute!"

All of a sudden she sobered up.

"Wait, what about Edward?"

"What about Edward?" I asked. On the inside, I was panicking. Did she know about my feelings for her brother?

"Haven't you noticed the way he looks at you?"

I laughed at that. "Edward? At me? No way." Sure we'd made out a couple times like a month ago, but he had never showed any actual interest in me.

"When was the last time you saw him with a girl? Honestly?"

"Easy! That was five minutes ago, he was flirting with Tanya." I said triumphantly.

She waved her hand dismissively. "Edward flirts with everyone. I mean, when was the last time you actually saw him full on making out with a girl?"

I honestly thought about it. It had been a while. But it definitely wasn't because of me. Right?

"Oh! That must be why he's so pissed! Because Jake asked you out!" she laughed.

"Uh, no. He didn't even hear Jake ask me out. And even if he did, believe me, he doesn't care."

She opened her mouth to dispute it, but then she looked around and saw the almost-empty hallway.

"We should get going." She laughed and we split up to go to our lockers before heading home.

As I walked to my locker, I thought about what Alice had said. Did Edward really feel that way about me? He had never mentioned it. Then again, I had feelings for him and I didn't mention it either. Then I thought back to chemistry class and the way he had been acting with Tanya. So, no, he didn't have any feelings for me. Right?


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

I scowled at the endless rows of bookshelves of nonfiction books. This was gonna take a while.

"Why are we here, again?" Edward groaned.

"Because we need to do some research, and oh, look!" I lifted my arms, gesturing to the numerous bookshelves around us. "Books!"

He rolled his eyes.

"I don't see why we had to do research _today_. The project's due in January and it's not even November yet. Besides, today's Halloween, we're supposed to be at home stuffing ourselves with candy, not doing _homework_." He said the word with such hatred I couldn't help but laugh.

"True, but you know as well as I do that if we don't start this today, we never will."

"Then why don't we start tomorrow?"

"I'm busy tomorrow and, before you ask, I'm busy on Sunday too. My dad is making me watch the football game with him. Apparently it's 'the game of the year' or something like that." I said, putting air quotes around 'game of the year' and rolled my eyes.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" _Damn. _I'd been hoping he'd overlooked that part.

"Just this thing."

"So, what are you doing?"

"Nothing. I'm just going out." I said over my shoulder, trying to sound like it wasn't a big deal.

"Why won't you tell me?" he said, moving to face me.

I looked at him incredulously, crossing my arms over my chest. "Why are you so concerned about what I do in my spare time?"

He narrowed his eyes. "You're deflecting." He searched my face for a moment before a look of realization crossed his face. "Are you going on a _date_?" He had this weird look on his face at the word 'date' but it was gone before I could identify the emotion, replaced by a stoic expression.

I couldn't help but feel insulted. "Is it really so surprising to you that someone would want to go on a date with me?"

"What? No! It's just-" he broke off.

"It's just _what_?" I stalked up to him and glared into his eyes.

He stared me down for a second before grabbing me by the waist and pulling me toward him so fast that I would have fallen if his hands weren't tight around my waist. Before I could protest, his lips were over mine.

His kiss was making me breathless and dizzy and it took a few seconds for me to come to my senses and push him away.

"Stop that!" I snapped.

"Stop what?"

"Stop pretending you care about me, we both know you don't." I shot back at him as I walked away, towards another shelf. One cursory glance of the shelves told me that this shelf was full of information on birds - not really helpful. I walked to the next shelf and started scanning it.

"I'm not pretending anything! You can't tell me that I'm the only feeling this? That ever since we first kissed for that dare things have changed? If anyone's pretending, it's you!" He followed behind me.

_He felt something, too?_

I whirled around to face him.

"And what if I did? What would it matter? I don't know if you've noticed, Edward, but you've never been a one-girl kind of guy," I hissed.

"Get a room," an annoyingly nasally voice said and we both turned towards our unexpected audience. We both turned to see a girl - a freshman, maybe? When she saw who I was arguing with, her whole demeanor changed. She fluffed out her fake ass platinum blond hair, thrusted her almost nonexistent boobs forward, and fluttered her eyes in a way I assumed was supposed to be attractive.

Scribbling something on a piece of paper she handed it to him.

"My name's Irina. Call me," she whispered in what I assumed was supposed to be a sexy tone before strutting off.

I glared after her retreating figure.

"Are you jealous?" Edward asked. He even had the audacity to look amused.

"No, of course not. But she didn't know if we were together or not and she just gave you her number while I was standing right here! What has society come to where women can't even respect each other's men?"

"So I'm your man now?" His eyes twinkled with mischief and something else that I couldn't identify.

"No I just- uhh! call her, don't call her, I don't care. Do whatever you want." I flustered before walking away.

"I'm not going to call her." He said quietly, his voice closer than I had expected. It sounded like he was right behind me.

"Well don't do it for my benefit. She seemed pretty interested in you." I said over my shoulder trying to act nonchalant. Like it didn't bother me. That he wasn't the reason I was going out with Jake tomorrow.

"What if I'm not interested in her?"

I headed towards another shelf. I kept my gaze diverted as I responded, ignoring the heavy feeling in my gut. "Why wouldn't you be? She seems your type."

"Yeah." Through the corner of my eye, I saw him look down at his feet.

"I found it!" I held up a book in triumph and handed it to him.

"Chemical Reactions for Dummies," he read aloud.

"It's perfect for you!" I grinned.

"Shut up." he rolled his eyes.

We checked out the book and as we headed out of the building, I told Edward to wait for me in the car while I went to find Alice (she had borrowed my math notes this morning and I needed them back to do my homework tonight).

I headed to the school office. As I approached the desk, the receptionist looked up. She was an old-ish woman who had been here longer than anyone could remember.

"How can I help you?" She smiled.

"Uh, hi. Could you tell me what room eco-club meets in?" I asked.

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you mean. This school doesn't have an eco-club."

I blinked. What?

"Are you sure?"

She gave me an exasperated look. "Honey, I've worked at this school for twenty-three years. I know every club and group here. I'm sorry to say eco-club is not one of them. Not anymore, anyway. We cut it from the program a few years ago due to budget cuts."

"Oh, okay. My mistake, then. Thanks." I stepped away from the desk and through the hallway

As I got into the car, I was still in shock. I couldn't wrap my head around what I'd just learned.

"Well?" Edward asked when he saw my empty hands.

"Uh, eco-club went on a field trip to go pick up some trash somewhere. I'll just ask her for it later," I lied.

Shrugging, he started the car.

As he drove, a single question kept replaying in my mind. If there was no eco-club, _where the hell was Alice?_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Personally, I loved Halloween. We always had a movie marathon and we each picked a couple movies to watch and rock-paper-scissored to decide the order we'd watch them in. Right now I was curled I was curled up on the couch in the Cullens' entertainment room, sketching, while Alice was in the kitchen upstairs making popcorn. Edward was lounging on the carpet on his back, legs crossed at the ankles, one arm behind his head, rhythmically throwing a tennis ball into the air.

Ever so often, I'd glance up down him and then go back to drawing.

Eventually, he caught me looking at him. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking up at me.

"Homework." I shrugged, feigning innocence.

"So you _aren't_ drawing me?" he raised an eyebrow, looking amused now.

"Trust me, you're the _last_ thing I'd draw." I scoffed, trying to sound convincing, but the skeptical expression of his face let me know that I wasn't fooling him.

"Then let me see." He got up and walked over to me.

"Privacy, dude! No way." I closed the notebook and putting a math worksheet on top of it.

I didn't expect him to grab it, but that's precisely what he did. With the element of surprise on his side, the book slid easily from my grasp. I came to my senses when he started flipping through it. I had to stop him before he found the sketches of him (and yes, there were more than one. Don't judge me).

"Hey, these aren't half bad." He was about halfway through now. If he kept flipping he'd get to the sketches of him.

"Hey! Give it back," I said as I got up and reached for the notebook.

"Ah ah ah." He pulled it away from my reach. I tried to reach around him but he held it above his head. Since he was almost a foot taller than me, he had the clear advantage.

After a few failed attempts of trying to pull his arm down to get the notebook, I tried to do what Alice did all the time to get guys to do what she wanted.

Pouting my lips a little, I looked up at him from under my lashes. "Please, Edward."

To my surprise, it worked. His expression froze and his jaw fell slack. At his distraction, I jumped up and got the notebook.

"No, you don't!"

Just as I was about to sit on it to keep it away from him, I found myself on the ground. He had just _tackled _me, effortlessly grabbing the notebook with one hand and holding my left arm down with the other. I fought to get it back from him with my free hand, but he was stronger. Somehow, I managed to push him off of me until I was straddling him, reaching for my notebook but before I could, he flipped us over so he was on top of me. We were on the carpet, chest to chest, face to face. I could see the muscles flex in his arms as they held mine at the sides of my head. The book discarded, we were both panting and I could feel my heart beating a mile a minute in my chest, but not entirely from the effort of trying to steal the book from him. His face was dangerously close to mine and I could see every fleck of green in his eyes. My breath caught in my throat and I could feel my heartbeat speeding up. I see his gaze flicker from my eyes to my lips and back again. He leaned forward and I felt my breath hitch. I tried to will myself to push him away, but I couldn't.

Just as our lips brushed-

"I got popcorn!"

We both froze at the sound of Alice's voice. When we heard the soft thuds of her footsteps on the stairs we quickly untangled ourselves from each other and moved apart. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my breathing and slow my heart back to a normal rhythm as Alice walked in. I looked to Edward who was sitting next to me to see him glaring at her, but she didn't notice. She was completely oblivious to what she had just interrupted. I, for one, couldn't decide if I was relieved or disappointed. Maybe a bit of both. I exhaled slowly. I was in way too deep.

"Weren't you on the couch?" She asked me, confused, offering me two bowls, one filled to the brim with popcorn, the other with candy.

"The floor's more comfortable," I lied as I took a handful from each bowl. I heard Edward snort in a failed attempt to conceal his laughter and when Alice turned away from me to sit down, I glared at him.

After a game of rock-paper-scissors, Edward triumphantly walked over to the DVD player to insert the movie he'd chosen.

"How was that field trip," He asked, his back to us as he set up the DVD.

"What field trip?" Alice asked, confused.

I quickly jumped in. "You know, the one for eco club that you went on today." I threw her a look.

A panicked look crossed her face before she composed herself. "Oh! Right. It was fine. Just helping the environment. You know, the usual."

He gave her a strange look but didn't comment as he turned his attention back to the TV.

"You know, it would be a lot easier to cover for you if I knew what I was covering for." I whispered to her but she kept her eyes on the TV, pretending to not hear me.

I laughed to myself. Whatever her secret was, it must be pretty big if she was keeping it from me. Well, I wasn't going to pry, but that didn't mean I wasn't curious. I tried to think of potential scenarios in my head. I was interrupted from my musings by a loud gunshot.

The movie Edward had chosen was the most violent movie I'd ever seen. After nearly the whole cast was killed, the movie ended.

Next was Alice's turn. She tossed Edward a DVD case. "This one next."

She hadn't told me what movie she had chosen this year and I hadn't asked. I was just about to ask her when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out to read a text from my dad asking me to come home since he'd come home early for once and wanted us to have dinner together. I texted him back saying we could have dinner some other time, considering Halloween only came once a year, but I only managed to bargain for a couple more hours.

I put it back in my pocket and looked up just in time to see the title of the movie come on the screen.

"We're watching _Curse of Chucky_?" I asked Alice, shocked.

"Yeah, it came out like two years ago - I think. Three, maybe? I don't know." She waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, it came out a while ago but I never saw it. So I bought the DVD so we could watch it together!" I didn't even know how to respond to that. She of all people knew I hated scary movies. Most of them I could handle but childhood toys walking around killing people just crossed a line.

"Scared, Princess?" Edward smirked.

"Don't call me that!" I protested, but didn't deny it. They wouldn't believe me anyway.

I watched as long as I could, but when I saw the doll hiding in the shadows, a grim and sadistic and just plain creepy smile on its face, I gave up. I screwed my eyes shut, trying to imagine myself anywhere else.

Halfway through the movie, I discovered that by crossing my legs and meditating, I could block most of it out. I knew my hands were supposed to be gently resting on my knees or whatever, but I couldn't seem to uncurl my clenched fists.

Someone screamed and I jumped a little as my concentration broke, eyes opening by instinct. I immediately regretted opening my eyes and screwed them shut again, my nails digging into my palms as I clenched my fists tighter.

I felt a hand cover one of mine and for a second I thought the doll had come out of the TV to kill me, but when I opened my eyes, I saw a masculine, and thankfully human, hand over mine. I followed the hand to its owner and for a moment I thought I was hallucinating, but after blinking a few times, is was clear I wasn't. _Edward was holding my hand._

He didn't make a big deal out of it, just kept looking at the screen so I decided to go along with it, even though my emotions were going haywire and my mind was over analyzing everything. It was a little weird with his hand on my fist so, slightly hesitant, I shifted my hand so I was holding his too. I glanced at his face but he was still looking at the screen, completely unfazed, as if this was completely normal for us, who up until a few weeks ago, hated each others guts.

I glanced at Alice, but she had her eyes glued to the television, one hand absentmindedly shoving popcorn into her mouth every couple of minutes.

For the rest of the movie, I kept my eyes closed, meditating. Every time a scream broke my concentration, I involuntarily gripped Edward's hand tighter. I quickly realized that my hand was getting sweaty and tried to pull away, only to be stopped by Edward who kept it firmly in his grasp. I looked at his face. His eyes were still on the television but a smirk was playing on his lips. I rolled my eyes but felt my own smile forming - that is, until I heard another scream.

After the slowest ninety six minutes and forty three seconds of my life, the movie ended.

"You know, I thought it would be a lot scarier." Alice said and I heard her get up and her quiet footsteps leading out of the room; probably to go to the bathroom.

I didn't respond, still in full-on meditation mode. I could see the light turning on through my eyelids and felt Edward let go of my hand, but still didn't open my eyes.

"C'mon, Princess. Movie's over."

I didn't even bother correcting him; I was still in my happy place. I kept my eyes shut and focused on my breathing. In. Out. In. Out.

"Bella, it's over. Open your eyes." This time I did, but only because I honestly couldn't remember the last time he had used my real name. The moment I did, I was assaulted with the sight of his dark green eyes staring into mine. He looked…concerned? His eyes then fell to my lips and mine did the same to his.

The spell broke when Alice walked in.

"I'm fine," I said, getting up. "Well, I gotta go, my dad wants me home for dinner tonight." I was slightly jumpy, half from the movie, half from Edward holding my hand, and half from his close proximity right now. That was way too many halves - I needed to clear my head.

"But it's Halloween!" Alice pouted.

"Yeah, I know." So much for tradition. I gathered my stuff, stopping by the bowl of candy to grab another handful and shove it into my bag.

"Well, see you guys." I gave a small wave, not even waiting for a response as I headed upstairs.

I heard heavy footsteps behind me and I knew instantly who they belonged to.

I turned to face him. "Look, Edward, if you're going to make some cruel comment, save your breath - I'm not in the mood"

"I wasn't." he said and held out my sketchbook. "You forgot this."

"Oh, thanks." I took it, looking anywhere but at him.

"Yeah," He said and headed back downstairs.

Hugging the sketchbook to my chest, I climbed the rest of the stairs, opened the door, and walked home.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N****: Thank you guys so much for all the awesome reviews! I think I replied to most of them but I lost track lol so this is just one big giant thank you to anyone who's ever reviewed on this story :) I just want you guys to know that every review literally makes my day and I appreciate all your feedback!**

**And before you read, I'd like to apologize for the extremely short length of this chapter. I wish I could say the next chapter will be longer, but it would be a lie. BUT (and this is a very big but lol), to make up for it, the next chapter will be posted in a couple days so stay tuned :)**

**Okay, I'm done. You can read the chapter now :)**

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**Chapter 14**

Sighing, I flipped over so I lay on my back. I glared at the dark ceiling, faintly lit by the pale blue glow from the alarm clock on my nightstand as I once again cursed Alice for forcing me to watch that stupid movie. I had been trying to sleep for the past three hours to no avail. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing that creepy-ass doll and hearing the screams from the movie echoing in my head.

In addition to being bitter about the worst movie night _ever_, I was irritated about what had happened _after_ leaving the Cullens' house. After _specifically_ asking me to come home for dinner, the second my dad got a call from some old friends who wanted to catch up over drinks, he had ditched me, telling me I could go back to the Cullens' house if I wanted and if not, 'not to wait up'. I would have gone back, but I needed to spend some time alone, _away _from the Cullens - well, one Cullen in particular. I was still not sure how to act around Edward; the situation made much more complicated, for me anyway, after he'd held my hand.

I was still confused about that. Why had he done it? Why did he care? _Did _he care? Now more than ever when I craved the sweet oblivion that was sleep to distract me from my thoughts, my own mind was acting against me. Whenever I closed my eyes, my mind kept coming up with some disturbing visuals from the movie.

_Note to self, learn how to sleep with my eyes open. Important life skill that is __**definitely**_ _worth looking into._

I would have pulled an all-nighter, but my overactive imagination kept seeing blurs of movement out of the corner of my eye, when really, there was nothing there.

Basically, I was at an impasse.

I eventually realized what I needed was a distraction, so I pulled out my phone to call Alice. If I was gonna suffer from sleep deprivation, she was gonna suffer with me. After all, it _was_ her fault.

She answered on the first ring, which was weird considering it was the middle of the night, but I was so glad to have a distraction that I didn't really care.

"Uh, Bella, I can't really talk right now," she whispered.

"_Who is it?_" I heard a male voice say through the phone, and then something that sounded suspiciously like a slap over a mouth.

"Who was that?" I asked, interested now.

"No one." She said, a little too quickly.

"C'mon Alice! Don't hold out on me! I thought we were friends!" I whined, hopefully making her feel guilty.

"Seriously, there's no one. I'm talking to Edward." she lied.

_Seriously, Alice, that's the best you can come up with? _I knew Edward's voice, and that was definitely not it.

"Oh, okay." I was going to call her out on it, but decided against it.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she said.

"Yeah, see you," I hung up. I was slightly miffed that she didn't trust me enough to tell me, but I let it go. She'd tell me when she was ready.

Even though the conversation with Alice had distracted me for a short while, the fear was slowly creeping up on me.

Rather than wallowing in my paranoid state alone, I started scrolling through my contacts list to find the only other person I could call.

I stared at the name for a second, having an internal battle with myself. Was I really desperate enough to do this?

_Yes._

Taking a deep breath, I pressed 'call' and held the phone to my ear.

After a few rings, the phone was answered.

"Princess, you better be dying because there is no other valid excuse for calling someone at this god-forsaken hour." Edward said in a voice rough with sleep. I was ashamed to say I thought it was hot.

"I…" I trailed off, instantly regretting my decision to call him in the first place. There was no way I could explain myself without sounding like a baby.

"Wait, are you still scared because of the movie?" He asked, sounding amused.

Sometimes he knew me too well. "No," I scoffed, but my nonchalant tone was ruined when my voice wavered. I looked up to the heavens - well, my ceiling - and I prayed to the god I didn't believe in to smite me now to save me from any further humiliation.

"That's complete bullshit and you know it. Then why did you call at…" he trailed off. "three in the morning?" I could just imagine that annoying smirk on his face.

When I didn't deny it, he laughed.

"You've got to be kidding me."

"In my defense, that movie was creepy. Would you just talk to me for a while?" I hated how desperate I sounded.

"Princess, do you think I became this attractive staying up late to comfort people like you? I need my beauty sleep. Go bother someone else."

"Hey, you should feel honored that I chose you of all people to comfort me in my time of need." I said, trying to get on his good side by appealing to his vanity.

I waited for his usual smartass response, but nothing came.

"Edward?"

...

"Hello?"

The silence on the other end was quickly replaced by the dialtone.

Dammit. He'd hung up on me. Why had I expected anything less? Because we'd kissed in the library? Because he had held my hand during the movie? I was pathetic. I didn't used to be like this - it was sad how far I'd fallen.

Self pity wasn't doing anything to help me sleep so I put on some loud rock music, put my phone on the nightstand, and tried to drown my thoughts.

A few minutes later, I thought I heard something downstairs. It sounded like the front door opening and some footsteps, but I was probably just being paranoid. Just in case I wasn't, I shut off my music and quieted my breathing so I could really listen. When my bedroom door creaked open, however, I knew it was real. I slowly moved my hand under the covers and off the bed, feeling beside the bed for the baseball bat I kept propped in between the headboard and the nightstand. My dad had given it to me, insisting I would need it someday. I never actually thought I would use it and now here I was, gripping it for dear life. I heard the intruder walking towards me and braced myself. When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I did the only thing I could do: letting out a screech that was worthy of a banshee, I swung.

The first swing landed in what I assumed was the guy's gut. I heard a groan and took that as motivation to keep swinging.

"Hey! Bella! It's me! Dammit! Not the face!"

I stopped swinging.

"Edward? What the hell are you doing here?" I dropped the bat and reached over to turn on the bedside lamp.

"You call, I answer. Isn't that how it generally works? And it's not that hard to find your spare key, Princess. Under a flower pot, real original." He said, rolling his eyes as he plopped down onto my bed next to me. Leaning back against the headboard, he lifted up his shirt. I tried not to stare at his defined abs as he gingerly felt his abdomen.

"Damn, you got me good."

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. "I thought you were trying to kill me. What the hell are you doing here? I thought you couldn't be bothered?"

"What can I say, I'm a sucker for the damsels in distress." I rolled my eyes at that.

"Seriously? What are you, my prince charming?" I couldn't believe he'd shown up out of the goodness of his heart.

"I am herest to saveth thou, Princess," He said, in what I assumed was supposed to be old English, giving me a deep bow.

I couldn't help but laugh. "How do you expect to do that when you couldn't even fight me off?" I scoffed even though my insides were melting a bit.

"I didn't have this," he picked up the discarded baseball bat and started twirling it with his fingers.

"Now go to bed," he commanded.

I looked at him for a moment before giving him a smile.

"What?" he asked, immediately suspicious.

Winking, I gave him a hard shove, pushing him off the bed and onto the floor.

"What the hell?"

"I get the bed, you get the floor." I stated, throwing him a pillow, which he caught before it hit him in the face.

He mumbled something along the lines of "being a prince is so overrated" and I rolled my eyes, silently laughing.

As I lay back, for some reason with Edward there, I felt safe for the first time all night. Closing my eyes, I let sleep over come me.

When I woke up, my head was lying over something hard and I could hear a slow, steady thumping beat under my head. Slowly peeking one eye open, I realized I was lying on Edward's chest. My head and one of my arms was thrown over his torso. Somehow in the middle of the night I must have thought he was a pillow and slept on him. But that didn't answer one question - how the hell did he get in my bed?

As not to wake him, I slowly pulled away to my side of the bed. It was then that I felt something on my forehead. I pulled it off, wincing slightly as the adhesive was ripped from my skin. It was a post-it, and on it was a short message in Edward's messy scrawl.

_**Your floor is hard as fuck.**_

I chuckled. Who was the princess, now?

I shifted my weight to my elbows and looked at him. He was fast asleep. I gently reached my hand to his hair and gently moved it away from his forehead. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep. My eyes kept being drawn to his lips. Those distracting, corrupting lips.

I was drawn from my thoughts by pressure on my bladder.

I thought about how I was going to get up without waking him. My bed was pressed up against the wall. I usually slept in the middle of the bed so that meant Edward must have somehow moved me without waking me. I was sleeping on the wall side and at the foot of the bed was my desk, so the only way off the bed was to go over Edward. I lifted one arm over him to the other side of the bed and did the same with my leg. Holding my breath, I moved over him as gently as I could, so I wouldn't wake him. By this point I was basically straddling him and my face was inches from his.

"If you wanted to lie on top of me, all you had to do was ask," he mumbled, eyes still closed.

Startled by his voice, my arms gave out beneath me and with a gasp I landed on his chest. He let out a huff of air as I squished his lungs.

"Sorry!" I squeaked, before quickly scrambling off him. In my haste, I stumbled and landed in an awkward heap on the floor.

"Ow," I mumbled against the carpet.

I climbed to my feet and opened my bedroom door.

"Where you going," he mumbled again.

When I looked back, he had rolled onto his stomach and had pulled the covers over his head.

"Bathroom." I answered simply.

Just as I was finished washing my hands and reached for a towel, I heard a scream and some yelling. Eyes wide, I ran out of the bathroom, half afraid of what I was going to find. Where was my bat when I needed it? The door to my room was half open already so I pushed it the rest of the way, my jaw dropping when I saw what was happening.

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**A/N****: DUN DUN DUUNNNN! Sorry for the minor cliffy but it was necessary. Well, not really...but you know what I mean. Leave a review :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

I blinked, not quite believing what I was seeing. _Maybe I'm still asleep and this is a dream_.

Pretty soon, though, I realized I was not in fact dreaming, and that this was actually happening.

Somehow, Alice had gotten into my house and had walked into my room as if it had been her own. That wasn't what was so unbelievable, though.

For some reason, she had picked up the discarded baseball bat from the floor and was now currently swinging the bat at Edward's back, repeatedly.

"Alice!" I yelled, and rushed to grab the bat from her.

She looked at me with a crazed look in her eyes before it turned to relief when she realized it was me.

"Bella! I just came in here to let you borrow some clothes for your date with Jake tonight," she pointed to the three piles of clothes she had placed on my desk, "but then I came and saw this!" She crazily gestured to the clearly masculine leg sticking out from under the covers. "I thought you turned into a dude! And then I thought this was some three little bears goldilocks shit and I thought this guy killed you and stole your bed so I started hitting him."

When I gave her a look that said '_what the fuck are you on?'_, she realized the fault in her logic and bit her lip.

"Sorry." She whispered apologetically at Edward's back. Sometime during her attack, he had pulled the pillow up over his head to protect himself from the blows.

"Why is there some random guy in your bed?" She asked me.

I did a double take. She didn't know it was Edward? Now that I thought about it, that made a lot more sense - I mean, why would she attack her own brother with a baseball bat? _Maybe, I can get her out of here before-_

Edward turned around, throwing the pillow to the side to reveal his face. "Not some random guy," he sat up, wincing.

_There goes that idea._

Alice's jaw dropped at the sight of her brother in my bed. Her shocked gaze kept moving as if she couldn't decide who to look at. Me, Edward. Me, Edward. It would have be funny to watch but this wasn't exactly the time for humor.

"I swear, this isn't what it looks like," I tried to explain, in vain because how could I explain this?

She grabbed my arm and dragged me out the door and into the hallway.

"You lost your v-card to my brother?! Why didn't you tell me?! And gross," She said, a little too loudly, scrunching up her nose in disgust. I heard Edward's laugh from inside my room.

I rushed to cover her mouth with my hand. "I didn't sleep with him!" I whisper-yelled indignantly.

She pulled my hand from her mouth. "Then what's he doing in your bed?" she whispered back.

"I couldn't sleep after the movie and he stayed with me," I shrugged.

She looked shocked, her mouth hanging open."So, let me get this straight, Edward, my brother, Edward, came over last night to _comfort_ you?"

I didn't blame her confusion. I wouldn't believe me either.

"It's completely your fault that I was creeped out in the first place! You _know _I hate horror movies!" I accused, throwing the spotlight off of me and Edward.

She ignored my accusation and kept the shocked look frozen on her face.

"It isn't a big deal!" I insisted.

"Edward doesn't comfort anyone. _Ever_. This is _so_ a big deal. I'm so confused I think my brain exploded." She said, hands on the sides of her face.

I was lying through my teeth when I said it wasn't a big deal. It _was_ a big deal. For me, anyway. Probably not for him, though. I was going to have to find a way to get over these stupid feelings that would never be reciprocated.

"Wait, so are you cancelling tonight?"

I stared at her blankly.

"With Jake?" She elaborated. Oh. Right. Jake. Crap, I had almost forgotten about him. What kind of person forgets they have a date? I was officially the worst person ever.

"Nothing's changed. There are no," I lowered my voice "feelings between me and Edward, so no, I'm not going to cancel tonight."

"But-" I held my hand up to stop her. "Can we stop talking about this? Please?" I begged.

She held her hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine, but while I'm here, can I at least get those jeans that you borrowed like two weeks ago back?"

I laughed. "Yeah, come on,"

As I headed back into my room to dig through my closet, Alice explained how she had brought me three outfits of hers that I could chose from for my date since she knew I didn't own anything 'girly'. I rolled my eyes at that but didn't deny it as I emerged with Alice's pale blue jeans.

"Here," I walked towards her to hand her the jeans. Before I could step back, she grabbed me and leaned into my ear.

"No feelings, huh?" She looked pointedly at Edward. I turned to look at him. He was sitting on my bed, his back against the wall. His hair was disheveled but rather than looking messy, it looked kind of hot. He was staring at me with a scowl on his face. I quickly looked away and turned towards Alice.

"He likes you," she whispered, just loud enough for me to hear. Before I could deny it, (I mean, why would he be glaring at me if he liked me?) she stepped back, a wide smile on her face.

"See you guys later," she waved as she turned and headed out.

As soon she was out the door, Edward broke the silence.

"Well, I better get going. You're not freaking out anymore so..." he trailed off, getting up and straightening out his clothes.

"Right, well thank-" he had brushed past me and was out the door before I could finish my sentence, leaving me wondering what the hell just happened.

Internally shrugging, I went downstairs to forage for some breakfast. I found a note taped to the fridge and recognized my dad's handwriting. Apparently he had come in late last night and left early in the morning for work. I thanked my usually unlucky stars that it had been Alice this morning and not my dad. I shuddered to think what might have happened.

After eating a bowl of cereal, I started to do my homework. I was about halfway through my English homework when I got a text from Jake asking for my address. I sent it to him and after finishing my homework, I moved on to clean my room. I was feeling oddly productive today and decided to embrace the feeling before it disappeared.

Afterwards, I watched a few episodes on my favorite show on Netflix, and before I knew it, it was about time to start getting ready.

After showering, I started digging around through my closet to find something that I could wear. Barely five minutes had passed when I gave up. Alice was right; I didn't really own anything other than t-shirts, leggings, and jeans. Sighing in defeat, I laid out the outfits Alice had brought over on my bed and put the first one on.

I immediately scrunched my nose in distaste. It was an outfit composed of a bright pink skirt with a pale pink lace tank top and a short jean jacket. There was a little too much pink for my taste, and the entire outfit was just screamed 'Alice' and not me.

Taking it all off, I moved on to the next outfit. It was royal blue high-low dress (is that what they're actually called?) with a gold belt. It was pretty and I would have worn it, but it seemed a little too formal for tonight.

The third outfit I fell in love with the instant I put it on. A black leather flare skirt that came just above my knees paired with a fuzzy white sweater that was off one shoulder. It was the perfect mix of casual and semi-formal and comfortable enough that I didn't feel constricted in my clothes.

My good mood at finding an outfit was soured slightly when my eyes drifted down to focus on my bare legs. I glanced out the window at the snow covering literally _everything _and shivered involuntarily. I would have worn tights or something considering it was November and freezing, but I didn't own any and I wasn't going to be one of those girls who wore jeans under a skirt. Oh well. Who needed legs anyway?

Next was my shoes. I knew there was no way I was going to survive a whole night in the heels that Alice had brought (I swear they looked more like weapons than shoes) so I settled for a pair of my own black chucks.

After curling my hair into loose waves and applying some light mascara and lipgloss, I was done and thoroughly impressed with myself. I decided to take a selfie since I probably wouldn't dress up for a while.

"Where are you going all dressed up?" My dad asked as I came down the stairs and into the living room. He had come home by this point.

"I have a date." I said cautiously, gaging his reaction.

He coughed a little before composing himself. "Well, uh, have fun, and be home by midnight."

I nodded, taking a seat on the couch to watch a little TV until Jake came.

The doorbell rang moments later and I got up. Straightening my skirt, I took a deep breath before opening the door.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

As I opened the door, I found myself slightly disappointed when I saw who it was.

_Come on, Bella. Get a grip and move on._

I gestured for Jake to come in and he did.

After pleasantries were exchanged with my dad and my dad threatened him just like any good dad would, Jake led me to his car, even taking the time to open the door for me.

The car ride was silent. The kind of awkward silence where no one knows exactly what to say so neither of us talk. I kept thinking that if Edward were here, we would be bantering as usual and we'd be laughing.

I nervously pulled at the edges of my dress. _What had made me think this would be a good idea?_

When we finally got to the restaurant, he did all the right things that girls always wish for in cheesy teen romance novels like opening the door for me and pulling out my chair, but my mind was only thinking about one person.

We ordered food and until it arrived, we talked. Well, he talked, I mostly listened. As the waiter brought our food, I could hear Jake's voice, but my mind wasn't understanding the actual words as I zoned out without really meaning to. Mechanically, I stabbed a piece of chicken with my fork and stuffed it into my mouth.

His voice drew me from my thoughts.

"Hm?" I blinked, brought back to reality.

He laughed, leaning back in his chair. "Damn, I never had a chance, did I?"

I gave him a confused look, trying to convince myself as much as I was him that I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Look, we both know you didn't agree to go on this date because you like me. "

"I don't know what you're-"

"I was hoping I was wrong but it's obvious that the only reason you said yes is because you wanted to make _him _jealous. And now that you're here with me, you're not even attempting to pretend to have any interest in me as more than a friend."

"I-I.."

"I don't appreciate being used as an excuse to make your boyfriend jealous."

"He's not my-"

He held up a finger to interrupt me. "Let me finish."

I pursed my lips, but kept silent.

"I'm going to pretend we're not on this date right now and that we're at school or something and I'm gonna tell you the truth that you're not ready to face: if you like him, tell him because I can tell you, pretending you don't feel anything for him is not going to help you get over him."

I was stunned into silence.

"See you in class." He gave me a small smile before getting up, dropping some money on the table, and leaving.

It took me a few moments to process what happened. He had left me here, stranded, with no way to get home. I mean, I deserved it, but come on!

I dropped my head into my hands. Not only had I completely wasted Jake's time, I had ruined whatever friendship we might have had. Classic me.

No point in wallowing in my self pity alone at a restaurant, so I pulled out my phone to text Alice to come get me. I really didn't want to explain to my dad the reason my date had ditched me.

_**Can u pick me up? i'm at that italian restaurant on Flynn Avenue**_

I couldn't remember the name of the place and was too lazy to ask one of the waiters.

Her response came just seconds later.

_**Be there in 10**_

Ten minutes later, I was standing outside the restaurant. I felt like any second I would turn into an ice cube. My thin jacket and the dress I was wearing was doing little to shield me from the chilly November air and I could feel my the goosebumps on my skin.

I glanced at my phone again. When I looked up again, I saw the familiar silver car on the nearly empty road. I walked up to the curb as the car pulled up. The window rolled down and I did a double take as I saw an unexpected face in the driver's seat.

"Edward? What are you doing here?"

He was silent for a second, just staring at me.

"Edward?" I said again.

He seemed to give himself a mental shake.

"Are you going to get in the car or not?"

He didn't have to ask me twice. I got in and closed the door behind me. I wrapped my arms around my middle to try and contain my body heat, but it wasn't working so well.

"How did you even know to get me?" I blurted out.

"One of Alice's friends picked her up earlier so she didn't have the car. She told me where you were."

"Oh. Well, thanks." I gave him a small smile.

"No problem," He kept his eyes on the road, but I could see his lips turn up at the corners.

The car was silent except for the hum of the engine. By this point, I was sure I was seconds away from turning into an ice cube.

As we stopped at a red light, my teeth started to chatter and I tried to rub my hands over my bare legs but since they were cold too it didn't help much.

He looked over to me. "Cold?" I could hear amusement in his voice as he reached over to turn on the car heater.

"Understatement." I shivered again. The car was getting warmer, but not fast enough.

He glanced at the stop light and instinctively, I did too. It was still red. By the time I looked back to Edward, he was unbuckling his seatbelt. He shrugged off his own jacket and held it out to me, leaving himself in just a t-shirt.

I looked at him. "What about you?"

"Princess, you're lips are blue, I think you need it more than I do."

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that," I said as I took off my own and placed it over my legs like a blanket. Then I put on Edward's. It was warm because of his body heat and I was grateful as it enveloped me. As I put it on, my senses were attacked by a smell that was undeniably Edward. Putting my nose inconspicuously to the collar, I took a deep whiff.

Sadly, he noticed and gave me a look before looking back at the road. I diverted my gaze, mortified. Was I at that stage of my obsession that I liked smelling his stuff? This was beyond sad - it was borderline stalkerish.

The rest of the car ride was silent, but unlike the car ride with Jake, this was a comfortable sort of silence.

As we pulled into the Cullens' driveway, I unbuckled my seatbelt.

"Thanks for the ride." I smiled before exiting the car to head home, my jacket hanging over my arm.

To my surprise, after shutting off the engine, he got out of the car and followed me.

"I can walk myself home you know," I said as I got the key from under the flower pot.

He opened his mouth for a second, before closing it. then he opened it again. "Uh, you still have my jacket."

I felt a light blush tint my frozen cheeks. "Right." I reached to take it off and shivered involuntarily at the rush of cold air that hit my skin and he held a hand to stop me.

"You can just give it to me tomorrow."

I was surprised but grateful as I shrugged it back on. "Thanks." I gave him a smile as I turned back to unlock my door.

He was silent for a second and then a thought crossed my mind: if he didn't want the jacket, what did he want?

I was just about to ask him when he spoke first.

"I would be," he said suddenly.

"What?" I turned towards him.

He stood up and ran his hand through his hair in a nervous gesture. Edward Cullen, nervous?

"Yesterday you said that I wasn't a one girl kind of guy. You're right. I'm not. But I would be, for you."

* * *

**A/N****: EEEEEEEEE! So what did you guys think of the chapter? Leave a review and let me know what you think about Edward's confession!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

I looked into his eyes and they were serious, almost looking out of place on his usually playful face.

I stopped, stunned. "What?" I repeated. It was like my mind was a broken record and 'what' was the only word it could form.

He slowly walked up to me.

"I think we should give this," He gestured between us, "a try. If you're willing to take a chance on this, so am I. Who knows, maybe we won't end up killing each other in the process?" he grinned.

I squashed down the glimmer of hope in my heart and masked it with a glare. "I'm not falling for that."

"Falling for what?"

"You actually expect me to believe that you have feelings for me?"

"Why do you always think I'm playing some game?" He looked...hurt?

"Because you always are!"

"Really? Do you seriously think that after everything, nothing has changed between us?"

"I don't know what to think! How do I know you're really serious about this? About us? That you aren't just playing me? That you aren't just going to run off to another girl when you inevitably get bored?" My voice quieted, and I cursed the nervousness and fear that crept in.

He took the last couple of steps to close the distance between us. Grabbing the collar of the jacket with both hands, he slowly pulled me towards him and covered my lips with his before I could protest. Almost immediately I could tell this kiss was different from the other ones we had shared. Instead of passion-driven, this kiss was slow and intense.

When we finally pulled apart, he looked into my eyes and I was stunned by the serious and raw emotion I saw there. It was the kind of look guys always have in the movies when they stare at their girl when she isn't looking. There was no way he felt that way about me. Right?

"Does that answer your question?"

I bit the inside of my cheek, nodding slowly.

He grinned. "Good. 'Night, Bella," His gaze lingered for moment longer before he turned to walk home.

"Good night," I said, so quietly that it was almost to myself. As he neared his front door, I entered my house and closed the door behind me. I stood there frozen, my hand on my chest as if to still my heart which was beating so fast I was afraid it was going to explode out of my chest. I leaned back against the door and smelled the collar of the jacket. It smelled just like him and the smell was intoxicating.

These feelings weren't healthy. Right? Especially for Edward, but at this moment, I couldn't bring myself to care. I liked him and he liked me and for now, that was enough.

Monday morning, for some stupid reason I found myself getting worked up over what to wear. Something was different today. Not a bad different, just different, different, and I hated to admit it but I knew why.

I actually tried to put in effort to my appearance today, tried being the operative word. I didn't look any different than I usually did, despite the unnecessary extra time I had spent trying to make my hair look presentable. I eventually gave up, yanking the bobby pins out of my hair and dropping them unceremoniously on the floor.

I exhaled, staring myself in the eyes in the mirror.

"Dammit Bella! Pull yourself together! You are not getting this worked up over impressing Edward of all people so just walk out that door and Stop. Freaking. Out. " I scolded myself in the mirror.

Then I realized what I was doing. Well, this was it. I'd finally lost it. No doubt another side effect of the disease that was Edward Cullen (along with liking him, which I never, ever, thought was possible).

Shaking my head slightly to clear it, I grabbed my backpack and headed down the stairs, taking them two at a time, rushing to see him as soon as possible. I was pathetic.

I walked into the Cullens' house, early for once.

"Hey," Edward grinned.

I held a finger to my lips and pointed towards where Alice was sitting not five feet in front of us, reading a magazine.

Just as I took a step away from him, his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me back towards him. I tried to push him away, but he was stronger than me. I could feel his warm breath on the back of my neck and I felt the goosebumps start to form.

"Stop." I mouthed to him over my shoulder but he ignored me.

"Are you sure?" he whispered in my ear and I suppressed a shiver.

"Hey, guys, are you ready to go or what?" Alice asked as she turned towards us.

He immediately let go of me and took a few steps to the side.

"Yeah, you lead the way," I said as cheerfully as I could to Alice.

She headed out the door and I followed. Just before I passed through the door to where Alice could see me, I mouthed, "I hate you," to him.

"No you don't," He mouthed back and I rolled my eyes, more out of humor than out of actual irritation. I was about to walk out the door when his voice stopped me.

"Hey, where's my jacket?" He asked and I turned to find him with his arms crossed, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, I seem to have misplaced it. But don't worry, I'll find it. Eventually. Or not. I don't know. It just disappeared. Honestly, it may never be found." I shrugged. To be honest, I knew exactly where it was; in its new home; my closet. But he didn't have to know that.

I turned and walked out the door, biting my lip to conceal my smile so Alice wouldn't be suspicious.

He followed behind me, chuckling quietly to himself. Obviously, he knew that I had every intention of keeping it, but didn't comment further.

Soon we were all in the car and were on our way to school.

Halfway through the car ride, Alice turned backwards in her seat to face me.

"Sooo, how was Saturday night? And don't you dare hold out on me, I need all the details!" Alice waggled her eyebrows in a way that eerily reminded me of Edward.

I felt a small smile make its way on my face as I remembered the events of that night.

"Oooohh. What did Jake do to make you smile like that?" She grinned.

The smile dropped as I remembered. How was I going to face Jake today? Was I supposed to just avoid him for the next two years? Or just pretend nothing happened? Ughh, why was life so complicated?

"Jake? Uh, no. It didn't work out, we're just friends. Nothing more."

"Oh." She looked dejected for a moment before confusion and interest crossed her face. "Wait! Then who's making you look like it's Christmas morning?" I could see Edward looking at me through the rear-view mirror, eyes glittering with mischief and I had to look away to keep from smiling and rolling my eyes at him.

"No one." I shrugged. "Is it so wrong for someone to be in a good mood for no reason?" Edward covered a laugh with a cough.

She didn't notice, still focusing on my and analyzing me. "No, but," she narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "it's you, so yes. Why would you be happy on a Monday morning?"

She had a point there. I was never happy in the morning, and Monday was no exception.

Good news was, by this point, we were pulling up into the school parking lot and I breathed a sigh of relief as I got out of the car. At least the interrogation was over.

"Hey! I'm not done! We are totally having a sleepover tonight so you can tell me exactly what happened Saturday!" Alice called after me.

Dammit.

Halfway through third period, which for me meant U.S. History, my phone vibrated in my pocket. After checking to see that the teacher was busy with some papers on her desk, I subtly pulled it out of my pocket and read the text.

**_meet me after class. ;)_**

**_-E_**

A faint smile played on my lips as I started typing. Then I realized what was doing and wiped the smile from my face before the teacher noticed I was smiling at my crotch for no reason.

where? I sent back.

Nearly twenty minutes later, the bell rang and he still hadn't responded. Internally shrugging, I walked around the hallway to head to my locker. Just as I was about to turn the corner, I suddenly I felt a grip on my wrist, spinning me into a janitor's closet so fast that no one saw a thing. A hand moved over my mouth before I could scream.

Panicking, I was just about to kick my attacker in the balls before I recognized the sparkling green eyes in the otherwise dark room.

I slapped his chest as he dropped his hand from my mouth. "What the hell, Edward? You almost gave me a heart attack."

Before I could recover my breathing, he pulled me towards him and turned our bodies so that I was pressed up against the door and his body was blocking all possibility of escape.

"What are you doing?" I asked breathless. I cursed my body for the way it reacted to just being in close proximity to him.

"Something I've been waiting to do all day" his arms were on either side of my head and his eyes focused on mine. I saw his eyes drop to my lips and mine did the same to his.

I'm waiting for him to lean in and kiss me, and am not disappointed when he dips his head and collides his lips with mine. just as his lips brushed mine, I felt this need. for him. wrapping my arms around his neck, I kissed him back eagerly and he matched my fervor. His hands ran up and down my sides before gripping my waist and mine tangled in his dark hair.

When we finally pulled apart, I was breathless and I was pleased to admit that I affected him the same way.

He let me go, and stepped back.

"See you in chemistry," He said, flashing me a grin. He opened the door and walked down the hallway. A couple seconds later, I opened the door and exited the closet, but was left stunned and silent standing against the wall.

"Lucky bitch," a girl muttered as she walked past me.

Giving myself a mental shake, I headed to class.

Barely making it in before the bell rang, I searched for an empty seat. At first I thought they were all filled, but considering the fact that couldn't be possible, I scanned the room again until my gaze fell on the one empty seat in the middle of the room. Then I realized who it was next to.

Awesome, I thought sarcastically. Seeing no other choice, I sat down.

"Hey," I said, not knowing if this would be awkward, considering our failed date (which, I'll admit, was totally my fault).

Jake looked at me for a moment. "So you told him. Good for you"

My eyes widened. It wasn't like relationships showed on people like pregnancies did. Or did they? Was I glowing or something like that?

"How did you-"

"I can read minds," He said with a completely straight face and at first I thought I had heard him wrong. After replaying the words in my head, and confirming to myself that yes he did just say that, I guess I must have been giving him a strange look because he threw his head back and laughed.

"I'm kidding. I saw you two in the hallway just now."

"Oh." I felt my cheeks warm slightly.

"You obviously like him and from what I've seen he likes you. I'm happy for you."

I was surprised. Why was he being so nice to me?

"Thanks, Jake." I eventually said.

As the teacher started class, I couldn't help feeling relieved that everything had worked out. For once, my luck was turning around.

Then I remembered that Alice was hosting episode two of the Bella Inquisition later and my relief turned to dread.

Shit.

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**A/N:** **OMG I CAN'T HANDLE THE FEELS AND I'M THE ONE WHO WROTE IT. HOW ARE THE FEELS AFFECTING YOU GUYS? LEAVE A REVIEW ;)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

When I got home, I was forced to give Edward back his jacket after a convincing argument by him in the car ride over that if I didn't want to be forever alone, I had to give it back before he froze to death. As if that wasn't persuasive enough, he also made a valid point about ice sculptures not making good boyfriends so I didn't really have a choice.

When Alice showed up after 'eco club' (I really needed to find out where she actually went), she hosted a full on interview. The only thing missing was the microphone. Every single detail of that night was called into question and my lies were barely believable, a fact Edward didn't bother to hide because he laughed at every answer I gave.

After an entire night of Alice's questions and Edward laughing at my expense, I was exhausted and went to bed, sleeping early for the first time in years.

When I opened my eyes, I was half convinced I'd somehow gone blind overnight because I couldn't see a thing. Then I realized that the reason I couldn't see was because it was still dark outside. I looked at the alarm clock and nearly did a happy dance. It was only a little past four, which meant I could sleep for another two hours. I sighed, sinking back into the warm covers and was seconds away from drifting off again when I felt pressure on my bladder. And not the, I-can-hold-it-till-morning kind of pressure but the if-I-don't-get-up-now-I-will-literally-pee-my-pants pressure.

_Dammit_, I thought as I reluctantly turned on the bedside lamp and got out of bed. I realized the reason I had felt warm was because I actually had the covers for once. Usually, Alice hogged them. But tonight, she wasn't here.

_Maybe she's in the bathroom_, I thought and nearly groaned at the thought of having to wait to use the bathroom, but when I got there, it was empty. After using the bathroom, I did a little search downstairs into the kitchen and living room, and eventually I concluded she wasn't in the whole house.

I made my way upstairs again. I knew for a fact that I was too curious to fall asleep now anyway so I stayed up listening to music and sketching. I didn't have to wait long, though, and not even a half hour later, I heard footsteps coming up the stairs. I quickly threw my sketchbook under my pillow and turned off the light. Phone in hand, I hid under the covers while I waited.

The door creaked open and Alice, careful to step lightly, walked in and gently shut the door behind her.

"FREEZE!" I said, turning on the flashlight on my phone and aiming it at her.

She did, slowly she turned to face me.

"Heeyyy, Bella. You're up," She drew out the sentence

At my silence, she felt obligated to give me an explanation.

"Well, I was just you know, taking a walk. It looked like such a beautiful night and the stars and-" She couldn't lie for shit. It took everything in me to maintain my poker face because it was just so funny seeing her squirm.

She stood up and headed to the other side of the room to her closet.

That's when I noticed the huge Forks High lacrosse sweatshirt she was wearing. I recognized it because Edward had one lying around from last year before he quit. Anyway, it was literally hanging off her tiny frame. As she turned around to hang her purse on the hook on the closet door I caught a glimpse of the last name embroidered on the back in huge gold letters.

"Whitlock?" I read aloud.

She whirled around with a panicked look on her face.

I started searching my mind for a 'Whitlock' and was coming up blank. Then it clicked.

"Wait, Whitlock as in _Jasper Whitlock _as in _Edward's friend Jasper?"_

Her face told me I was right.

"What? When? What? Huh?" My mind couldn't form a proper sentence.

"Look, don't freak out okay? Jasper and I both started working at the mall over the summer and we started talking and -" I zoned out. _Edward's gonna have a field day with this one,_ I thought.

Jasper and Edward used to be best friends, key words being 'used to be'. They had this huge fight over a girl last year, that girl being Tanya Denali (I'm still convinced that they must have been under the influence of something because there is no logical reason someone in their right mind would wanna be with _that_) and their friends had sort of picked sides, almost all of them flocking to Edward, leaving Jasper virtually friendless. In the end, Edward got Tanya (but only for a night if you're catching my drift) and punches were exchanged with Jasper. Neither forgave the other, and they threw away nearly a decade of friendship over the school whore. It was sad, really.

"How do you know he's not using you to get back at Edward?" That was the natural assumption after all.

"That's what I thought at first, but he's not like that. I know him, Bella. "

"In the biblical sense?" I couldn't help but joke.

"Shut up!" She blushed.

"Oh. Wow. Really?" She bit her lip and turned an even deeper shade of red if that was possible.

"I love him." She admitted. "And I know that's what all girls say and stuff, but really. he loves me too." She thought about her words for a second. "Wow that sounded a lot better in my head." We both laughed.

"I get why you didn't tell Edward, but why didn't you tell me? I could've covered for you. How long did you actually think you could pretend you were at eco-club?" I raised an eyebrow.

She laughed. "I wanted to but I kinda liked having something to myself."

I understood that. Edward and I had literally only been together for like a weekend but I already liked having it a secret. It felt like some forbidden romance or something like that. Wow. I sounded insane. These feelings were really messing with my head.

"You do know how Edward's going to react right? He's gonna freak when he finds out you're together."

"That's why you can't tell him! Or anyone!" She pleaded.

"Alice, you're going to have to tell Edward and your parents eventually." I didn't like lying, which is kind of hypocritical considering I was with Edward and was keeping it a secret too, but it was true. And especially since Edward and I were together now and talked more often, I was sure he'd be able to see through any lies I told him.

"It won't be for long! I swear! I'll tell them myself. Eventually."

Eventually, despite my better judgement, I agreed.

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**A/N:** **Soooo was anyone expecting that? And I'm not just asking I actually wanna know so leave a review!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

For some reason, after Alice turned off the lights and we both went back to bed, I couldn't sleep. No matter how much I tossed and turned, nothing worked. I even tried counting sheep, but I guess that only worked in kids' books because nothing happened except my mind was now thinking about sheep and how it felt for them to run around practically naked after they'd been sheared. Totally random, but my mind just kept jumping from one random topic to the next and wouldn't shut up.

By the time I finally managed to nod off, I didn't even get ten minutes of actual sleep before Alice's annoying alarm was waking me up. Needless to say, I was exhausted and probably would have been better off just staying up the rest of the night because the little amount of sleep I did get seemed to make me even more sleepy.

Not even the triple shot mocha I'd forced Edward to buy me in a Starbucks drive thru on the way to school had done anything and by third period, I was ready to drop.

As my math teacher droned on and on about outer space (god knew how he went from talking about derivatives to outer space but whatever), I was struggling to keep my eyes open, nearly falling face-first into my book a couple times.

I jumped nearly a foot out of my chair when the bell rang, and honestly, that woke me up better than the coffee had. But even if I were deaf and couldn't hear the bell ring, I could see the exact moment it went off because everyone seemed to sort of come to life and snap out of the depressed state class had put them in.

I gathered my stuff quickly and headed to my locker, hoping to catch Edward there at the same time since his locker was right next to mine. As I neared, I smiled a little when I saw he was already there. I could tell he hadn't seen me approaching because he didn't acknowledge my presence as he opened his locker, blocking my view of his face as he did so. I saw him put his books in his locker, all the while engaged in a conversation with James, who was standing right next to him. I couldn't hear their actual conversation, but a few words carried over the sound of people walking and talking and I got the gist of it. Apparently, one of their friends had just started dating this girl and his personality had done a complete one-eighty.

"He's so whipped." I heard James laugh as I got closer. "I asked him if he was coming to the party at Tanya's this weekend, and he said he was hanging out with his girl and couldn't come! He's totally been brainwashed, man. I'd die before I let a girl tell me what to do."

"Agreed. And besides, I'd never let myself be tied down to one girl, anyway." Edward replied.

I froze and someone ran into me from behind, muttering profanities under their breath as they walked around me.

I felt like I'd been slapped in the face. I felt tears stinging my eyes and I tried to blink them back but it wasn't working. A couple tears escaped and rolled down my cheeks and I angrily wiped them away. Of course he hadn't meant it when had said he wanted to give us a try. He had told me what I'd wanted to hear and just like the idiot that I was, I had fallen for it even though I knew better.

I stepped back, about to turn the other direction and leave before he saw me, but gravity decided it was at that moment that it found me attractive and I tripped over my own feet, falling on my ass on the hard floor. My stuff scattered in random directions, and I tried not to get trampled by people trying to get to class as I reached for them. I grabbed my math book, and tried to pick up my notebook but yanked my hand back when someone almost stepped on it. Edward closed his locker and turned just in time to see me scrambling to gather everything before it got kicked farther down the hallway.

He looked at me, surprised. "Bella?"

I immediately diverted my gaze and quickly picked the rest of my stuff up. With everything finally in my arms, I scrambled to my feet and turned on my heels, walking in the opposite direction of my next class.

"Bella, wait." I heard his footsteps behind me but ignored them, instead walking faster.

I was supposed to be going to health class, but I'd heard we had a substitute teacher today anyway, so it wasn't like I'd be missing out on anything important if I skipped.

I was just about to turn into the next hallway and escape into the girl's bathroom where he couldn't follow when I felt his grip on my arm. I tried to pull away but it was no use as he pulled me into the janitor's closet, closing the door behind us.

"Dammit! What?" I barked, yanking my arm back and glaring into his eyes. He ran his hand through his hair.

"Look, I didn't mean it."

"Yes, you did." I said. "And look, I get it. We were never going to work. I was stupid to think we were."

"Bella, just _listen_."

"I'm done listening, Edward! One minute you say you want to give us a try, and the next-"

"Bella!" He shouted, interrupting my rant.

"What?" I shouted back.

"Just shut up!" I was about to let him have it for speaking to me that way but he stalked up to me and covered my mouth with his before I could.

My protest was short-lived, however, as I became distracted by his lips. I tried to fight it, but his lips were turning my resolve to mush and my eyes closed as I melted into his arms. It took a moment, but I finally came to my senses and pushed him away.

I was ready to walk out the door, but was too confused to move. He was..._laughing_?

I narrowed my eyes. "What's so funny?" I asked cautiously.

"It's just that, if I had known it was that easy to shut you up, I would have done that years ago."

"Shut up!" I glared, crossing my arms over my chest. "And I'm still mad at you!"

"Look, I didn't mean what I said before. I was just saying it because no one knows we're together, remember? To everyone else, I'm single and ready to mingle." I gave him a look and he laughed. "I'm kidding, but you know what I mean. I had to lie, that is, unless you _wanted_ James to announce to everyone, Alice included, that we're having a secret love affair?"

I scrunched my nose at his word choice and that just made him laugh harder.

In actuality, now that I thought about it, his reasoning made a lot of sense. _Well, this is awkward._ "Sorry I freaked out."

"I'm used to it. And it wasn't all bad. You're kinda cute when you're pissed." He grinned and I rolled my eyes.

"Could you promise me one thing?"

He raised an eyebrow so I took that as invitation for me to continue. "Please, don't ever say that again."

He looked confused for a second before realization set in, quickly replaced with a smirk. "What? Secret love affair?"

I cringed and he laughed.

"Stop!"

"C'mon babe, I kind of like it. 'Secret love affair' has a nice ring to it don't you think?" He was still laughing.

I lightly slapped his chest. "Stop it! I'm serious!" I demanded, but now I was laughing too. His good mood was infectious.

"Make me," He taunted.

So I did, crashing my lips to his.

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**A/N:** **Ah, the feels, *wipes tear away*. Early update cuz I felt like it so you're welcome :P You know, to repay me, you could leave a review... ;) **


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Since this is fanFICTION, I sorta changed Bella's birthday for the sake of the storyline...**

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**Chapter 20**

A few weeks had passed since Edward and I had started our secret relationship. We still argued and insulted each other like always, except now we kissed and did more coupley-stuff.

Right now I was sitting with my legs stretched out the length of the couch at my house, trying to finish the monumental stack of homework I had as soon as possible.

I was almost done when my phone buzzed on the coffee table.

I reached over and picked it up, cursing whoever interrupted my productive streak.

_**can i come over?**_

I smiled when I saw who it was from.

_fine but no distracting me i have homework_

Five minutes later, Edward walked in. He lifted my feet, sitting down, and putting my feet on his lap. He was wearing a light gray v-neck and I could see his tattoo peeking underneath the collar.

Reaching over me, he picked up the remote from the coffee table and turned on the TV. We sat in silence for a minute, and I wanted to ask something but wasn't sure how'd he react. Knowing him, he'd laugh and I'd feel like an idiot.

I opened my mouth, and closed it again before getting angry at myself. What the hell was wrong with me? It was just Edward.

"Hey, Edward?" I started hesitantly.

"Yeah," He looked over at me.

"Where'd you get your tattoo?"

"Why? Do you want one?" I could hear the underlying laughter in his voice.

"Uh, yeah." I admitted meekly.

"What, really?" He looked at me, surprised.

"Well, I've always wanted to get one, but you know my dad, he'd never go for it so I was going to wait until I was old enough, but..." I trailed off. He was still staring at me. I suddenly felt embarrassed. "Forget I said anything, it was a stupid idea." I flustered, looking down at my lap at my homework.

Out of the corner of my eye could see his eyes still on my face.

"We could go now if you want." He said unexpectedly.

I looked up. "Really?"

"Alice is hanging out with some friends so it would just be you and m-" I tackled him in a fierce hug.

"Thanks, Edward." I looked up at him, smiling.

"You know, if you were _really _thankful…" He trailed off, waggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

I slapped his chest and rolled my eyes, "You just ruined a perfectly romantic moment," I said, climbing off him and retreating to my corner of the couch.

He crawled over, his body lying over the full length of mine. Lying on top of me but being careful to not put his full weight on me, he leaned down and captured my lips in a kiss. His hands tight on my waist, slowly sneaking under my shirt and touching my bare skin. His touch left a trail of goosebumps on my skin and I shivered slightly.

When we finally pulled apart he was grinning. "I think I redeemed myself." He smirked.

I froze.

"What?"

I held my hand to his mouth and signaled for him to listen.

He rolled his eyes but stayed silent. When nothing happened, he lifted an eyebrow, but then we heard the rustling of gravel as a car pulled up into the driveway.

"_Hide_!" I hissed, pushing Edward off of me.

"Why?" He looked amused.

Grabbing his arm, I pulled him off the couch and started pushing him to the coat closet.

"Because to the outside world, we hate each other, we're not dating. My dad can't find out like this so _hide_!" I said as I shoved him in.

"But-" Giving him a quick kiss to silence him, I shut the door and ran back to the couch.

Seconds later, my dad walked in.

I lifted my head from the homework I had thrown onto my lap. "Hey, Dad! What are you doing home?" I tried to sound as natural as possible but I don't think it worked. Good thing was, he didn't notice.

"I just needed some papers that I forgot this morning. How was school?" He said as he walked past me.

"It was fine. Oh, and Esme was wondering if you're going to actually be around for Thanksgiving this year or if you're going to be working again." My father tried to be around for holidays but as the town's chief of police, he was usually super busy and had to work through holidays.

"I will be coming and so will your mother." He added as he walked up the stairs into his home office. Wait what?

I followed after him. "What do you mean she's coming?"

"I _mean_, she will be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner at the Cullens' house." He said as he gathered some papers into a folder.

"But _why?_"

"Because Thanksgiving is not only Thanksgiving, but it's your birthday and both Thanksgiving and birthdays are time for family and your mother is family." He exited his office and headed down the stairs.

I trailed after him. "But-"

"This is not a discussion, Bella, I just wanted to tell you ahead of time so you wouldn't be blindsided." By this point we were standing at the front door.

"It won't be that bad, I promise. Now I need to go back to work so see you tonight."

My mouth was gaping open so he gently put his hand under my chin to close my mouth and left.

As soon as the sound of his car's engine drifted away, Edward stepped out of the closet. "Are you okay?"

I gritted my teeth. "Peachy."

"Wanna get that tattoo now?"

My mood immediately brightened. "Definitely."


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N:** **Sorry, sorry, sorry for the long wait! I've been really busy and just haven't had the time to write. But! Good news is, this chapter's here now ****BUT** **before you read, I'd like to give a shoutout to two loyal readers who I've heard have been reading for a while and have been telling their friends about this story :) Yes, I'm talking to you, Ariana and Daniela. I, as well as Isabella, would like to thank you for telling your friends about this story. It's because of you and all my other loyal readers (and I'm not going to name all of you because the list would literally be long enough to be its own chapter) that I keep writing so thank you all for reading until this point and I hope you enjoy the rest of this story!**

**Oh, and I've had a few technical difficulties in past chapters, but everything's fixed now and I'll pay more attention to mistakes and stuff...lol anywhoo author's note over. You can read now :) AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW :P**

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**Chapter 21**

I stared at the big black sign at the top of the building: _**MAFIA INK**_

It looked shady as hell and I felt uneasy. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

Edward noticed my hesitation. "If you're not sure about this, we could-"

"No, I want to." I said, keeping my voice as stable as possible. You only lived once, right? _But your life will be five times shorter if you get some infectious disease or something and end up dying._

I breathed a sigh of relief as we entered. The inside was nowhere near as bad as the outside. Looked pretty cool actually, with every inch of the walls covered in art and tattoo designs.

"So what do you want?" Edward asked as we walked into the place.

"Uhhh…" I had never actually thought this far. As I looked around, I felt even more lost as the thousands of tattoo designs on the walls overwhelmed me.

"It's almost Thanksgiving; you could get a turkey tattooed somewhere." He continued.

I looked at him incredulously. "I am _not _going to get a turkey tattooed on my ass."

"I never said anything about your ass," He said innocently, but I knew him better than that.

I laughed. "But you were thinking it."

He didn't deny it and I laughed again before sobering up. I was at a complete loss.

"Can I see yours again?"

He looked at me like I was crazy. So I tried again. "C'mon I need inspiration."

"It's like twenty degrees outside."

"But we're not outside. Please?" I held my hands up in a pleading gesture and looked up into his eyes, pouting my lips.

He stared at me for a second more before shrugging off his jacket then his shirt, exposing his bare skin.

I, just like last time, had to struggle not to get distracted by his amazing body. I focused on the tattoos and not on the skin they were drawn on.

Starting at his wrist, I gently traced the lines with my fingertips up his arm. When I got to his chest, I felt a slight shudder go through him, and my hand froze on his chest and my eyes flew up to his.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"It's fine," He whispered back.

I looked up into his eyes, hypnotized.

"Uh, okay you can put your shirt back on." I said, turning away. He laughed but did.

Then I had an idea. I found a wrinkled napkin in the back pocket of my jeans and, after borrowing a pen from one of the tattoo artists, I used Edward's back as a flat surface to draw my design on. I drew a series of curved lines and in the end, they came together to look like a bird. It was perfect.

I held it up to Edward. "Well?"

He just laughed. "You would draw your own. It looks great."

A young tattoo artist walked up. She didn't look that much older than us with dark hair with ice blue tips. Every inch of visible skin covered with tattoos or piercings.

"You pick one out?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah," I handed her the napkin.

She nodded. "Okay, follow me."

We did. She gestured for me to sit a chair that sort of reminded me of a dentist's office.

As I situated myself, she she sat down in her own chair and spun around to gather some supplies. A moment later, she turned back to us. "ID?" She asked me as she pulled on some gloves.

I looked at Edward, eyes wide.

Both he and the tattoo artist burst out laughing at my panicked expression.

"Nah, I'm just playing. Are all your girls this gullible, Edward?" They knew each other? I looked to Edward.

"Nah, Bree, this one just tends to be a little slow."

"_This one tends to be a little slow_?" I repeated, glaring at him.

"See what I mean?" He and Bree laughed for a moment and I scowled at the ground, feeling like an awkward third wheel. Who was this girl?

"Bree was a senior last year at Forks High. She's actually the one who hooked me and the guys up with our tattoos." Edward explained, answering my unvoiced question.

Oh. That made sense. But I still didn't like how comfortable he was with her.

She turned to me, smiling. "Like he said, I'm Bree."

"Bella," I offered. She seemed nice enough. For some reason, that made it worse.

"Well, Bella, where do you want it?" She asked, smiling again, and I felt an unexpected wave of envy come over me. Sure, I was pretty, but she could have been a model if it weren't for the tattoos and piercings. I quickly pushed the thought aside and thought about what was important right now: my tattoo.

I _had _thought about this part. I lifted my shirt a little and pointed to the to the left side of my stomach.

"Okay, lie down."

I lied down on my back and lifted my shirt a little higher to expose my stomach. I shivered when I felt a cool chill on my skin as Bree wiped my hip with some antibacterial stuff around the area.

I looked up at the ceiling, which I now noticed was covered by a huge mural. It was pretty. Calming, with mostly blues and greens swirling around and coming together into a cool looking abstract painting.

Edward was standing next to me, his arms folded over his chest, the muscles in his biceps prominent.

"Will it hurt?" I asked suddenly.

"You're kidding, right?" Edward asked.

"Right, stupid question." I let out a small laugh. I closed my eyes and clenched my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms.

I felt a hand cover my clenched fist. I opened my eyes to see Edward's hand over mine.

"Don't forget to breathe." He said, a grin gracing his face.

I glared at him, still kind of pissed off about how comfortable he seemed around Bree, even though I knew it was completely irrational. "No, I was planning on not breathing. I'm sure it will help with the pain if I'm dead."

He only raised his eyebrows at my bitchy tone.

"Sorry," I sighed, exhaling and he gently squeezed my hand.

Overall, the pain wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, not to say that it wasn't hell, and by the end of it all I had an awesome tattoo.

After I was all cleaned and bandaged up, Bree led us to a register. "Cash or credit?"

I froze, and not just because I was purposely limiting my movement because of my stomach. _Shit_. I had forgotten to bring money. I was such an _idiot_. Who walks out of the house without money? Me, apparently.

"I got this," Edward said as he reached in his pocket for his wallet.

"No, Edward, you don't have t-"

"It's not a big deal, Princess, relax." He interrupted me.

I opened my mouth to protest but he held up his hand to stop me.

"Would you prefer debtor's prison?" He pointed to my lack of wallet.

Rolling my eyes, but secretly grateful, I silently watched as he paid.

"Don't be a stranger!" Bree called as we walked out of the building and I had to keep myself from turning back and strangling her. Huh. So this was what jealousy felt like: wanting to kill perfectly nice people for no reason. I scowled at the ground. I didn't like it.

"Thanks, Edward" I said as we got in the car.

"No problem." He said, starting the engine and drove out of the parking lot.

I turned to look out the window but yelped as a pain stung the side of my stomach. Edward looked over at me and I exhaled. "I'm fine. Just, keep driving." He didn't look convinced but turned towards the road anyway.

Slowly, I turned to look forward again, trying not to aggravate it side much but epically failing. I winced. "I guess this counts as our first official date, huh?"

He turned towards me again and looked at me for a minute. Seemingly making a decision, he spun the car around so fast my head punched into the headrest. My hands braced against the edge of the dashboard, my knuckles white with tension.

"What the _hell_?" I gasped. "Are you trying to _kill _us?"

He gave me a mischievous grin. "I'm taking you out to dinner."


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:** **Alright, so I'll admit, it's been a while. Okay, more than a while, but I'm in my junior year of high school and in 3 AP classes and an honors class and it's hard af and I don't have as much time as I used to. I had considered abandoning this story but I've put so much work into it already so I decided to just keep writing and see where it goes so you're welcome :)**

**And, I know Thanksgiving is long gone and Christmas is around the corner but just pretend for the sake of the story line that it's not Thanksgiving yet because this chapter and the next two are pre/during Thanksgiving so yeah…**

**OKAY I'M DONE NOW. Enjoy (probably not cuz this is cliche af but thanks for reading anyway :P ) and leave a review!**

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**Chapter 22**

I laughed as Edward pulled into the parking lot.

"You have got to be kidding me."

He turned towards me. "What?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "_This _is where we're going to have our first date?" I asked, more amused than anything else.

He looked offended. "What's wrong with it? Don't knock it till you try it, Princess."

"I'm pretty sure everyone's tried it, Edward, but that's not what I meant."

"First of all, this is a fine dining establishment that is severely underrated by society-"

"And the FDA." I added. He gave me a look that told me he didn't appreciate my comment and I started cracking up. Although I could tell he tried not to, his own lips twitched in amusement.

"Alright, I'll take that," He conceded, "but keep in mind I don't have a job, and neither do you, so we can either eat here, or we can dumpster dive at that fancy restaurant on 3rd." He cocked his head to the side waiting for my answer.

I rolled my eyes, laughing a little as I reached for the door handle.

"Wait!" He yelled and I jumped whirling around, and I drew in a breath at the stab of pain as I twisted my torso.

"What?" I asked but he ignored me as he opened his door and got out, closing the door behind himself and leaving me alone in the car. What the hell was he doing? He walked around the front of the car and walked over to my side. Was he actually going to do what I thought he was going to do?

When I saw the determined look on his face, I realized he was.

I was half amused and half in shock as he approached, flashed me a wolfish grin, and opened my door for me. He held out his hand for me. "You're door, Princess?"

Who was he and what had he done to Edward? I was in shock and honestly didn't know how to respond and said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm perfectly capable of opening my own door, you know." As soon as the words left my mouth I wanted to face-palm. Here he had done something gentlemanly and I had completely brushed it off.

I think he realized what I was thinking because rather than being offended, he smirked.

"I mean, thanks." I corrected myself, grabbing his hand and stepping out of the car.

I could feel the comfortable weight of his hand at the small of my back as we walked through the parking lot and I couldn't help the small smile playing on my lips. As we reached the doors of the 'fine dining establishment", despite my protests, Edward opened the door for me again and we stepped inside.

I was assaulted by the familiar smell of fast food and felt my stomach growl. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.

"Welcome to McDonald's, may I take your order?" The cashier gave us a wide smile as we approached. I looked around - there weren't that many people, only a few scattered families with antsy little kids who could barely be contained in their seats.

After we ordered our food, I told Edward to get us a table while I washed my hands. Who knew how many germs lurked in that tattoo parlor.

Before washing my hands, I bent over, hissing slightly in pain as I did a cursory glance under the stalls to make sure no one was there; it was empty. Lifting my shirt, I peeled the bandage back to admire my ink. If I ignored the inflamed skin, the tattoo actually looked pretty awesome. Fixing the bandage and rolling my shirt back over my stomach, I quickly washed my hands and exited the bathroom, using a paper towel to open the door.

As I stepped out, I made eye contact with Edward across the restaurant. Distracted by his stare, I completely didn't see the wet floor sign until it was too late. I felt a wave of panic as I struggled to keep balance but my converse had no grip on the slippery floor and I slipped backwards, hitting the back of my head against the hard linoleum.

_Ow, _was the last thing I thought before dark spots started swimming into my vision and I felt myself fading into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, my head was in something soft. Well, soft compared to the hard floor.

"If you are considering pressing charges, I would like to remind you that we did have a wet floor sign in the area." I heard a woman's voice. The McDonald's cashier?

"Are you shitting me right now? Call a doctor or something, can't you see she's hurt?" Edward this time. He sounded pissed.

"No doctor." I opened my eyes, wincing at the bright lights and my throbbing head.

As Edward's eyes flew to mine, relief obvious in his gaze, I realized my head was in his lap. Hovering above us was the McDonald's employee standing awkwardly to the side. Bitch. I could have been dead for all she knew and she was talking technicalities? I gave her my best glare and she sheepishly returned to her position behind the counter.

I made a move to get up, only to have Edward gently push me back down.

"C'mon, I'm hungry!" I whined. I could see our food on the counter. At least, I hoped it was our food.

I was so close to him that I could hear the deep rumble of his chest as he laughed. "You can eat in a minute, first I have to make sure your brains are still in you and not oozing out of you onto the floor." As he talked, he gently probed the back of my head with his fingers with a focused expression on his face.

Apparently satisfied with his evaluation, he helped me back up.

Now that I was upright, my head cleared a little and I felt a lot better. I could feel the beginnings of a headache coming on but it wasn't that bad, mostly because I was being distracted by my hot boyfriend. Edward was standing directly in front of me, his face still furrowed in concern and his green eyes staring directly into mine. "You could totally pull off the hot doctor thing," I blurted out without really thinking and my cheeks flushed slightly.

He smirked. "Did you just say I was hot? Maybe you hit your head harder than I thought."

"Well, I guess the universe had to intervene if I was stupid enough to go on a date with you," I joked.

"I was wondering when you'd be back." He laughed and started pulling me along to the booth he had been sitting at earlier. Even though he had laughed, I could tell right away that it wasn't a real laugh and even though I could only see the side of his face as we walked, I could tell his expression had dimmed slightly.

Dammit. I froze in my tracks, grabbing his hand to pull him to a stop too. He turned to face me, a questioning look in his eyes.

I looked up, staring into his eyes. "Hey, I was kidding," I said softly.

"Yeah, I know," He said, but he still seemed more serious than before and not entirely back to himself. I immediately felt bad for my terrible attempt at a joke.

As we sat down at opposite sides of a booth, I could feel the tension in the air. The moment was ruined, curtesy or yours truly. I felt like shit for killing the mood and I didn't know how to fix it.

In all of this, we had forgotten to pick up our food. I made eye contact with the cashier and I guessed she must have been feeling bad about earlier because she personally carried our food over to us.

The second she left, Edward turned all his attention to his burger. I scrunched my nose in distaste when he took a huge bite of the greasy mess they dared call beef. All I had ordered was a large fries and a chocolate shake and, I had to admit, they looked pretty good. Taking a fry, I dipped it into my shake and stuffed it into my mouth. I closed my eyes at the taste - it had seriously been too long since I'd been here.

When I opened my eyes, Edward was giving me a strange look.

"Have you never tried that?" I asked him and he shrugged, before going back to his burger.

Frustrated at the awkward silence on his part, I grabbed a fry and dipped it into my shake, fully intent on ignoring him right back and just eating my food, but that wouldn't solve the problem, so I did the next best thing.

I flung the fry at his stupid, stubborn, attractive face. Because I had dipped it into the shake first, it stuck to his cheek for a moment before plopping down into his lap.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud loud at the priceless look on his face as he stared down at the limp shred of potato.

I started laughing harder and my stomach was cramping but I couldn't seem to stop. As the seconds passed, he finally seemed to come back to life, brushing the fry to the ground and narrowing his eyes at me. "Did you just throw a fry at me?"

I tried to sober up, I did, but I couldn't keep a straight face. "I don't know what you're talking about." I said as innocently as I could between snorts. When I finally calmed down enough that I was confident I wouldn't choke if I tried to eat, I took another fry and, after swirling it around in my shake, popped it into my mouth. The utter disbelief on his face was too much for me to take and I burst out laughing again, only to start choking on the fry. After struggling to breathe for a few seconds, I quickly took a few gulps of my shake and sighed in relief when air started entering my lungs normally again.

Shaking his head at me and rolling his eyes in amusement, Edward reached for his burger, picking it up and leaning his head down to take another bite.

While he was distracted, I picked up another fry and dipped it into my shake. Instead of eating it, I casually tossed it at him. This time, it hit him in the forehead before dropping to the table.

He stared blankly at the fry on the table for a second before throwing his burger down onto the tray. "Alright, this is war." Grabbing his thing of fries, he started chucking them at me.

"Hey!" I giggled, picking up my own fries and chucking them at him.

I could hear the entire restaurant go quiet, the only sounds in the room being my laughter and Edward's half-hearted threats, and I could peripherally see all eyes on us, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

I reached in the paper cup thing for another fry, only to be met with empty air.

_Shit. _I was out of ammo. By the smirk on Edward's face, I could tell he saw my panicked expression. A mischievous grin formed on his face and my eyes widened in terror.

I was just about to duck under the table for cover when a huge shadow came over the table. Edward and I froze, looking over to see a huge guy in a police uniform staring us down. He must have been eating there because there was no way that the cashier could have gotten the cops there so fast. I quickly ducked my head. I was sure my dad had at least one picture of me on his desk at the station and I did _not _need this guy recognizing me.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." He said, his voice just as loud and scary as his appearance.

"But, officer, my girl and I-", I literally swooned at "my girl", "were just having a bit of fun. No harm done." Edward said, staring unflinchingly at the officer, completely relaxed despite the fact that the dude had a gun and would probably shoot his ass (or at least cuff him and drag him away) for talking back to him.

"Unless you two get out of here, you can have "a bit of fun" explaining to your parents why they have to bail you out of jail tonight."

I gulped. "That, uh, won't be necessary officer, we'll just be leaving, now." I stuttered as I slunk out of the booth. Grabbing Edward's hand, I dragged him out of his side of the booth and dragged him behind me towards the exit, ducking my head to avoid making eye contact with anyone in the restaurant.

As we reached the car, Edward stopped suddenly and I fell backwards slightly at the dead weight attached to my hand.

"You can slow down, Bella, I think we're safe. The big bad cop isn't going to arrest you."

I whirled around to face him.

"How can you be so calm right now? We just got kicked out of McDonald's! Who even does that?"

He just shrugged. "Look on the bright side - it'll be a good story to tell the grandkids some day."

I gave him an incredulous look.

"What?"

"If that cop had arrested us I wouldn't be able to _have _grandkids because my dad would've _killed _me!"

"But we didn't get arrested," He argued stubbornly.

"Barely." I scoffed.

He rolled his eyes. "So you're mad because we got kicked out of McDonald's and _almost_ got arrested?"

When he put it like that, I realized it wasn't that bad. Well, it was, but I was more sad about something else. "No! I'm mad because I didn't get to finish my shake," I pouted.

All of a sudden, he pulled his left hand out from behind his back (I hadn't even noticed it was back there), and my jaw dropped.

"How-?"

"It was the only thing that survived our food fight." He grinned.

I reached my hand out for it eagerly but he pulled his hand back. "Ah, ah, ah!"

I dropped my hand, scowling. "Alright, what do you want for it?"

He thought for a moment before speaking. "A kiss," He said simply.

I laughed. "You want me to give you a kiss for my shake?"

"Seems like a fair trade." He shrugged.

Did he really think I would be willing to stoop as low as the PG equivalent of prostitution for a chocolate shake?

From the smirk on his face, I could tell he thought I would.

Well, he was in for a surprise.

I slowly crossed the distance between us and tilted my head up slightly to look into his eyes. Blinking a little, I put a coy and seductive smile on my lips and pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. Since our faces were mere inches apart, I could see his eyes darkening a bit as the pupils dilated. He leaned down slightly, fully intent on meeting my lips in a kiss, but just as our lips brushed, I turned my head and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Taking advantage of his state of shock, I grabbed the shake from his unsuspecting grasp and danced a few steps back. Once I was a safe distance away with my back against the side of the car, I took a long sip.

"Mmmm." I sighed at the deliciousness.

"What. Was. That?" He asked, standing frozen where I left him.

"What was what?" I asked innocently, taking another sip from the straw.

"You know what." He said as he stepped towards me.

"All you said was you wanted a kiss." I stated simply.

"So?" He asked, his tone annoyed. _Aww, my poor baby._ By this point, he had braced his hands on either side of me against the car, blocking any escape - not that I wanted to.

"You never said where." I grinned.

He gave me a look that told me he didn't think it was as funny as I did. For some reason, that made me laugh even more.

I was just about to take another sip from my shake when it was torn out of my grasp and, next thing I knew, my beloved was splattered on the asphalt after being carelessly tossed over Edward's shoulder.

"Hey! I was drinking th-" My protest was cut off by Edward's lips, and all thoughts about that stupid shake flew out the window.

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**A/N:** **I think this is my best chapter so far...Both writing-wise and humor-wise. It was definitely the most fun for me to write :) What do you guys think? Leave a review telling me which chapter has been your favorite!**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N****:** **Thank you so much for the awesome reviews! Honestly, I don't know when this story will end - I'm just kind of playing it by ear :) I know most people plan and/or write the entire story before posting the first chapter but I'm not organized enough for that so you guys will just have to deal with my sporadic update schedule :)**

**P.S. : I think I've mentioned this before but just in case I haven't, I sorta changed Bella's birthday from September to November. That's just sort of where the storyline headed, and who was I to stop it? Lol, all kidding aside, this is fanFICTION so technically I can change whatever I want so I did :P I hope you enjoy :)**

**P.P.S.: Sorry for the super short chapter but mind leaving a review anyway? :)**

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**Chapter 23 - Deep**

_BZZZZZZ. BZZZZZZ. BZZZZZZ._

I blinked, groaning when I saw it was still dark behind my curtains.

I looked at my alarm clock. Midnight. Who the hell would be idiotic enough to call me at midnight?

I reached for my phone on the nightstand and rubbed my eyes at the bright light that burned my retinas when I pressed the home button. After a moment, my eyes adjusted and I was able to focus on the caller ID. Of course. _My_ idiot.

"H-hello?" I tried, but my voice was a little rough from sleep and came out barely above a whisper. I cleared my throat and tried again. "Hello?"

"Happy birthday."

I laughed, rolling onto my back, phone to my ear. "Thanks, but wouldn't calling me in the morning have been just as effective? Or waiting till dinner later?" My dad, mom (_ugh_), and I were going to have Thanksgiving dinner at Edward's house with his family later today.

"Well, I'm sorry for trying to be a good boyfriend." He said, his tone...cold?

I replayed my words and cringed when I realized how I had sounded. _Shit._ "Edward-"

"You obviously value your sleep more than you value me so I'll just leave you to it." His voice sounded even more detached than before. _Double shit._

"I-I- I didn't-" I was trying to put into words what I wanted to say but was epically failing. "I didn't mean it the way it sounded, I swear, it was really sweet of you to call and-"

He interrupted me with a loud laugh. "Babe, relax before you hurt yourself. I was kidding."

I huffed. "Not funny. And not fair. I'm not nearly awake enough to deal with your lame attempts at humor right now."

"You say the sweetest things to me," He cooed and I shook my head, a small smile playing on my lips. "Well, now that you have been properly welcomed into the seventeenth year of your life, you can go back to sleep."

I ran the hand not holding my phone through my hair as I sat up, leaning back into the head of my bed. Sadly, all traces of exhaustion seemed to have disappeared and I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again anytime soon. "Actually, I think I'm gonna stay up for a little longer, maybe watch something on Netflix."

"You know, I could sneak in through your window and we can Netflix and chill," He said, his voice low. The mental image of Edward waggling his eyebrows up and down and giving me that annoyingly handsome smirk of his combined with that stupid phrase was just too much I couldn't help but let out a loud laugh before coming to my senses and clapping my hand over my mouth.

I quieted my breathing, listening to hear if I had woken my dad up. After a few moments of nothing, I let out a sigh of relief.

"Is sex the only thing on your mind?" I whispered into the phone, just in case.

"Only when you're around."

"I'm flattered, really, but I'm just not that into you." I said nonchalantly and I grinned when he snorted.

"That hurts, Princess, that hurts real deep."

There was a comfortable silence for a moment, the only sounds being our quiet breathing.

"Hey, Edward?" I ask hesitantly.

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

I rolled my eyes. "Haha, very funny. I'm serious."

"What's up?"

I opened my mouth but shut it again, trying to decide how to phrase what I wanted to ask. I eventually decided to just spit it out. "Well, if you hadn't noticed, I'm not very ladylike or princessy and I was just wondering-"

"Why I call you Princess," He finished.

I nodded until I realized he couldn't see me. Maybe I wasn't as awake as I thought. "Yeah."

"Do you remember what you were wearing for Halloween in seventh grade?" He asked randomly.

I blinked. "What? How does that-"

"Well, do you?"

I scanned my memories trying to remember what I wore what year.

"Uh-"

"You were dressed as Mulan 'cause you and Alice went through a Disney phase that summer. And even though we were, like, twelve and too old to dress up, you and Alice insisted. And when Alice decided to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast and demanded you go as a respectable princess like Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty, you said you didn't want to be the girl who relied on a man to save her."

I laughed as I remembered. Mulan was badass as hell.

"How do you even remember that? And besides, Mulan isn't even a princess, I don't understand why-"

"You didn't need to dress up as a princess for Halloween because you already were one."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "How do you mean?"

"I mean you always had this regal air about you, even when we were kids. Like you knew everyone was beneath you-"

"I do _not _think everyone is beneath me!" I protested.

He continued on as if I had never interrupted him. "And you judge everyone because of it. You always expect people to agree with you and whenever they don't you give them a detailed explanation on why they're wrong and you're right."

"Just because I defend what I think doesn't mean-"

"You see what I mean?" I could hear the amusement in his voice and I scowled but kept silent this time.

"You always tell it how it is and say what's on your mind and I love that about you."

I froze. "What?"

"I-I" he stuttered. Stuttering was not something Edward Cullen did. "I said I like that about you."

I found myself half relieved and half disappointed, and I couldn't figure out why. Well, I could, but I didn't want to accept it. It was way, _way_ too soon. "Yeah, well thanks for the explanation. And for calling to say happy birthday."

"Yeah"

Unlike the earlier silence, this one was awkward.

"Well, it's uh, pretty late so I guess I'll see you at dinner later," I said.

"Yeah, see ya."

I hung up and dropped the hand holding my phone to my side. Closing my eyes, I dropped my head back against the headboard of my bed and took a deep breath.

I was in way too deep.


End file.
